HC Deb 13 March 1996 vol 273 cc978-9
16. Mr. McAvoy

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what measures he is taking to improve the visible trade balance in the forthcoming 12 months. [18705]

Mr. Oppenheim

Through Overseas Trade Services, the DTI provides the best ever package of information, advice and practical assistance to all British companies wishing to explore new export opportunities.

Mr. McAvoy

That entirely complacent answer from the Minister totally ignores the ever-widening deficit. Is the Minister aware that 1995 was the 13th successive year that the United Kingdom had an annual world visible trade deficit? Whereas we welcome proper measures to reduce that deficit, is not the Government's record appalling and is not the best and only way to improve the country's economic performance for the present Government to go?

Mr. Oppenheim

The hon. Gentleman will not expect me to agree with his last comment, although I agree with him about the importance of the trade balance of the manufacturing sector. I remind him that in the 1960s and 1970s our trading position deteriorated steadily under Governments of both colours, but since the mid-1980s we have maintained our share of world trade for the first time in many decades and exports of manufactured goods have increased at twice the rate they did under the last Labour Government.

Mr. Garnier

Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the best ways to improve the visible trade balance is to continue the Government's strong economic policies, to discourage the imposition of a minimum wage and to discourage the introduction of the social chapter?

Mr. Oppenheim

I agree with my hon. and learned Friend. The best way to empower workers and increase their bargaining power at the workplace is not by intervening artificially in wage contracts, but by ensuring that workers have a good education and good training so that they are valuable and productive to their employers. It is fundamentally dishonest for the Opposition to pretend to British workers that there is an easy, painless way to increase wages without a commensurate increase in productivity. Come the general election, people will be asking members of the Labour party at what level they intend to set the minimum wage; unless they can answer that question, no one will take that key Labour policy seriously.