HC Deb 28 January 1970 vol 794 cc1545-6
38. Mr. Jopling

asked the President of the President of the Board of Trade, what priority he gives to exporting compared with import saving.

Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody

The policy of the Government is to encourage a continued improvement in the balance of trade, whether by increased exports or by import saving. My right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade has a particular concern within the general policy for the promotion of exports.

Mr. Jopling

Is not the hon. Lady aware that her right hon. Friend is on record as having said that, all other things being equal he preferred exporting to import saving? Does the hon. Lady realise that that is totally wrong? Will she get her right hon. Friend to stand behind the Minister of Agriculture at the forthcoming Price Review to try to get more generous treatment from the Treasury for our farmers?

Mrs. Dunwoody

I assure the hon. Member that I stood behind the Minister of Agriculture recently when he was being attacked with sheep and all sorts of things by farmers. If we are a world trading country and we expand our export markets, it must be obvious that to increase our exports will, in the long run, be more advantageous than import substitution. It is because we have forward various ideas to industry for ways in which it can insist on import substitution that we are obviously doing all we can on both fronts.