§ Q8. Mr. Farrasked the Prime Minister if, at the next Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference at Singapore, he will lay before his colleagues there a plan defining the special position of certain Commonwealth nations as primary producers supplying this country, and request their agreement to the presentation of this document in the form of a special treaty of association for these nations with privileges similar to those accorded to signatories of the Yaounde Convention by the United Kingdom negotiators at Brussels.
§ Mr. MaudlingI have been asked to reply.
600 No, Sir, but no doubt the position of Commonwealth countries in relation to our negotiations for entry into the European Communities will be discussed at the Conference.
§ Mr. FarrWould my right hon. Friend agree that the position of nations such as New Zealand, Australia and countries of the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement matters just as much as the position of France's African territories mattered to France; and will we insist on similar privileges and protections?
§ Mr. MaudlingThroughout the long and repeated negotiations—and I remind my hon. Friend that they began in 1957—in all our relationships with the European Communities the position of New Zealand, Australia and the sugar-producing countries of the Commonwealth have constantly been in our minds.