§ 31. Mr. Loveridgeasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will seek to arrange a conference in the United Kingdom to follow up the third United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and to be particularly related to the encouragement of industrial manufactures in the underdeveloped world.
§ Mr. KershawI am sure that the international conference which the Society for International Development is organising at Oxford in September, 1973, on the development relationship between Europe and the Third World will give careful attention to this question. There will be full British participation in this conference.
§ Mr. LoveridgeI appreciate my hon. Friend's reply. Is he aware that the developing countries can never expect to improve their lot by produce of agriculture and commodities alone which at present account for 70 per cent. of their total earning capacity? Up to one-third of their populations is unemployed. They need manufactures. They need trade rather than aid. Britain as a manufacturing nation could set an example by instituting such a conference.
§ Mr. KershawI am obliged to my hon. Friend. Our record in receiving the manufactured articles of developing countries is a good one. There is at present before the House the Overseas Investment and Export Guarantees Bill, and we have introduced other Measures in the last two years to facilitate the further expansion of the manufactures of developing countries.