HC Deb 18 June 1986 vol 99 cc1032-3
7. Mr. Chapman

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the combined total value of United Kingdom exports for 1985 to China, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Pakistan, Romania, Saudi Arabia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The Minister for Trade (Mr. Alan Clark)

United Kingdom exports to these countries amounted to £2.7 billion in 1985.

Mr. Chapman

As these countries are just some of those which on any criteria cannot be called free and democratic, will my hon. Friend confirm that Britain does much trading with undemocratic countries and countries with oppressive regimes? In considering the morality of trading with South Africa, should not the Government in all consistency examine their trading policies with at least some other evil and undemocratic countries?

Mr. Clark

My hon. Friend raises an interesting point. Censorship, judicial execution—in many places in public —and imprisonment without trial are all characteristics of the countries that he mentions and a number that he does not. Were these elements to be a bar to normal trading relations, our trade would be even more circumscribed than it looks like being at the present, but such judgments are a matter for my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

Mr. Madden

Has the Minister any information that the Government of Saudi Arabia are seeking to restrict travel by British citizens to Saudi Arabia to two airlines, British Caledonian and Saudia?

Mr. Clark

I have no such information, but I suggest that the hon. Gentleman addresses his queston to my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Department of Transport on the next appropriate occasion.

Mr. Alexander

Did my hon. Friend see the reported comment this week by Mr. Jing Shupeng of the China International Trust and Investment Corporation Ltd. that British businesses were losing out because they were too expensive? Does that not underline the Government's concern that our businesses have far too heavy overheads and are still not really competitive in world markets?

Mr. Clark

There are a number of things that can contribute to a non-competitive cost in a business tender. Certainly Her Majesty's Government are doing their best to compensate for that by the soft loan facility which offers finance to projects in China at an extremely high level of subsidy.

Mr. Ashdown

Is the Minister aware that British high-tech trade to the Eastern bloc countries since the late 1970s has halved to £40 million and, at the same time, the United States high-tech trade to Eastern bloc countries has increased eight times since 1981, to $2 billion and is forecast to double again next year? When will the Government stand up to attempts by the United States to control British high-tech trade by using United States law in Britain, since it is now clearly being used to advantage the United States and disadvantage the United Kingdom high-tech industry?

Mr. Clark

There is a great deal in what the hon. Gentleman says and I regret this state of affairs very deeply. Her Majesty's Government are always ready to protect those firms which wish to resist—

Mr. Ashdown

Wet.

Mr. Clark

It is not that. I cannot put it in any stronger language. Her Majesty's Government are always ready to resist claims of extra-territoriality on the part of the United States, but in each case it has to be left to the commercial judgment of the firm concerned. If it is the firm's judgment that by so doing its status in relation to its primary supplier will be altered and damage its commercial prospects, who are we to override that?

Mr. Thurnham

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is best for individual traders to decide with whom they would like to trade rather than for Governments to attempt to impose sanctions?

Mr. Clark

Indeed, I welcome that. If traders make that choice and ask for our protection they will have it.