HC Deb 30 January 1974 vol 868 cc436-7
29. Mr. Goodhart

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what changes he is making in the United Kingdom aid programme following the recent increases in the price of oil which came into force in January 1974.

Mr. Wood

I have no present plans to make changes.

Mr. Goodhart

Apart from the all-important question of our ability to pay, does not my right hon. Friend recognise that the recent surge in oil and commodity prices has dramatically improved the economic position of some countries, such as Nigeria and Zambia, while others such as India are a great deal worse off? Is it not time that there was a dramatic reallocation of our aid programme so that it fitted the present realities?

Mr. Wood

The position, as my hon. Friend knows, is that already one-quarter of the aid programme goes to India. I realise that the burden—my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said so publicly—on the developing countries without oil will be very great. We are, therefore, considering the whole matter very carefully.

Mr. Torney

In view of the adverse effect of the oil crisis on Jamaica, have the Government received any request for extra aid from Jamaica? If so, to what extent will the Government ensure that such additional aid is quickly forthcoming?

Mr. Wood

I have had representations from a number of developing countries, including Jamaica, about the burden of the extra cost of oil on their economies. As I have said, the Government are considering very carefully what they can do to help in this situation.

Mrs. Hart

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree with the estimate which has been made that the rise in the price of oil will mean that the cost per year for the developing countries will exceed total official and private flows from rich to poor countries? If he does agree, is it not essential, first, that there should be urgent discussions with those oil-producing countries which are now to have vastly increased revenues and, second, as his hon. Friend has said, that there should be a totally new look at the aid framework? Were these matters discussed with the Shah of Iran by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Switzerland last weekend?

Mr. Wood

The right hon. Lady is right in her general assessment of the order of this burden which the developing countries are suffering. It is certainly our hope that the oil-producing countries which will receive a considerable increase in their funds will look very sympathetically at the needs of the developing countries. As the right hon. Lady knows, a number of the oil-producing countries already help the developing countries, and the developing countries themselves are making approaches to the oil-producing countries to this end.

In answer to the right hon. Lady's last question, so far as I know this subject was not discussed with the Shah of Iran.