HC Deb 26 March 1968 vol 761 cc1157-9
Q4. Sir D. Walker-Smith

asked the Prime Minister whether he will now initiate a study in regard to the feasibility and advantage of British participation in an Atlantic Free Trade Area.

The Prime Minister

I would refer the right hon. and learned Member to the Answer I gave on 21st March 1968, to Questions by the hon. Member for Banbury (Mr. Marten) and the right hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton (Mr. Turton).—[Vol. 761, c. 596.]

Sir D. Walker-Smith

Was it not the Prime Minister who said that, in politics, a week is a long time? Has not a week been long enough to show him the inadequacy of his previous answers, and will he not now come to a decision to give serious and sympathetic consideration and research in depth, without commitment, to this project, or are we to take it that his mind is closed to an extension of industrial free trade?

The Prime Minister

in fact, it is not a week, but five days since I gave these answers, and too rigid an application of that rule in relation to Parliamentary Questions would ensure that our proceedings at Question Time would become highly repetitive, not to say tedious. On the particular issues, I have nothing to add to what I said last week.

Mr. Brian Parkyn

Will not my right hon. Friend agree that the extraordinary events of 10 days ago have shown the complete interdependence of the dollar and the British £ and, therefore, the need for the country to orientate itself much more, both politically and economically, towards the United States rather than towards Europe?

The Prime Minister

I do not always hear these sorts of proposals made from behind me. But certainly it is a fact that the events of 10 days ago showed the total interdependence not only of the dollar and sterling but of all countries who are concerned with the operation of the world monetary system, particularly those in Europe, but others as well. I do not think that, of itself, it has any particular lessons for economic or political groupings outside that.

Mr. Bessell

In view of the United States Administration's acceptance of the latest Kennedy Round proposals, and the fact that it is unlikely that they will accept a further extension of these proposals, would the Prime Minister, therefore, look at this narrower suggestion?

The Prime Minister

I would have thought that an acceleration of the Kennedy Round was a much better thing to get all the nations concerned to agree to than the much wider and so far undefined proposition contained in this Question. Even so, the announcement of my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade in the House about an acceleration of the Kennedy Round has run into pretty stormy weather in the last 24 hours, so I should not want to raise hopes unduly of pursuing it in that direction.

Mr. Henig

In view of the fact that my right hon. Friend has made it clear that the Government's policy is still to seek, in the long term, British entry into Europe, is not the time ripe to see whether it would be possible to get an intermediate form of relationship with Europe, perhaps under Article 238 of the Treaty of Rome, as a prelude to full entry?

The Prime Minister

I do not think that anything that has happened in the last three or four months has affected the validity of the arguments against second-class membership of the Article 238 kind.

Mr. Turton

Is it not clear that the hold-up over the acceleration of the Kennedy Round is coming again from the Government of France? Would not the Prime Minister, therefore, consider how he is to liberalise trade, either by an industrial free trade area or otherwise, or is he wedded to the idea of a common external tariff?

The Prime Minister

The right hon. Gentleman's reading of Press reports of yesterday's discussions on this question leads him to conclusions very close to those that I have myself reached in this matter. But I am not sure that that would suggest that we would be more likely to secure agreement on the much wider area contained in the Question that he put down last week. We have very great difficulties in getting the Six to work together on matters such as the Kennedy Round and financial questions before we can consider appropriate action, even in the monetary sphere, on a wider scale.