§ 1. Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Trade what visits he 15 intends to make to COMECON countriese in the immediate future.
§ Mr. ShoreI have received invitations to a visit a number of these countries and am looking forward to doing so when my other commitments permit.
§ Mrs. ShortIn view of the disastrous deficit with the Common Market countries, where the reality has not measured up to the rosy propaganda put out before we entered, does my right hon. Friend accept that the COMECON countries constitute a much-neglected part of the world and that if he were to accept some of the invitations and show a little more interest than his predecessor did we might see an improvement in our balance of payments position next year?
§ Mr. ShoreThere has been an encouraging improvement in trade, but more with East European countries than with the Soviet Union itself, where I think our trade has remained stagnant and, considering the size of both the Russian market and our own, extremely small. As for the future, we shall certainly try, but this is a two-way business and unless the Soviet Union builds more external trade into its planning there will inevitably be limitations on what is available. I am glad to say that there are signs that more trade is being built into the Soviet Union's coming five-year plan.
Mr. WellsIs the right hon. Gentleman aware of the widespread anxiety in the British horticulture industry about dumped horticultural produce from COMECON countries, notably tomatoes and cucumbers, which in a short time would so depress the British industry that there could be no home-produced tomatoes in two or three years' time?
§ Mr. ShoreThere have been many anxieties in the horticulture industry arising from many trading arrangements and not just from the possibilities of dumping by East European countries. But I shall certainly examine any particular problem about which the hon. Gentleman cares to tell me.