§ 18. Mr. DalyellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on trade with Egypt.
§ Mr. NeedhamOur commercial relations with Egypt are good. United Kingdom exports to Egypt have been just under £300 million annually. Imports have been just under £150 million.
§ Mr. DalyellWith a major railway contract between the Egyptian border and Tobruk, with 1 million or more Egyptians working in Libya and 5,000 or more British nationals working in Libya, what are the Egyptians saying about the imposition of the increasingly farcical sanctions and what is the cost of those sanctions to Britain? When Time magazine and the Pan Am lawyers—not exactly organs of the left—are saying that the target is wrong in respect of the Libyans who were, at most, operatives, will not the Government reconsider the whole question of sanctions, 'because the responsibility may lie in Teheran?
§ Mr. NeedhamI know the hon. Gentleman's views about sanctions on Libya, but I spent the past six and a half years seeing the consequences of Libyan Government actions through the Semtex, machine guns and rocket 304 which have been blowing up the people of Northern Ireland and its economy—and so far as I am concerned personally, I should like the sanctions to be even harder against Libya.