§ 2.43 p.m.
VISCOUNT ELIBANKMy Lords, I beg to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are aware that manufacturers applying for licences to export electric motors, cables and similar equipment to China under the exceptions procedure are requested to furnish information regarding the destination and end-use of the products; and whether, seeing that this delaying practice is not helpful to British industrialists in opening out new oversea markets and places them at a serious disadvantage in entering the important China market in competition with West German, Belgian, Swiss, Swedish, and other foreign manufacturers, they will consider the advisability of discontinuing this practice.]
520§ THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (LORD MANCROFT)My Lords, if we are to justify exceptions from controls on exports to China which we have agreed with the Governments who co-operate with us, we must satisfy ourselves, so far as we can, that the goods to be exported are to be used for civilian and not military uses; and it is for this purpose that we need the information referred to in the noble Viscount's Question. The other Governments who are members of the Co-ordinating Committee are subject to the same obligation. All applications for export licences under the exceptions procedure are considered on their merits. The licensing authorities do not, however, automatically call for further information, especially where the intended use is apparent from the specifications furnished.
VISCOUNT ELIBANKMy Lords, I beg to thank the noble Lord for his Answer. Can he inform the House of the number of cases in which applications for licences have been made but have been refused because information on destination and end-use has not been forthcoming, or anything relevant to that aspect of the situation?
§ LORD MANCROFTMy Lords, as I have already told the House, in some cases the use to which the exports are to be put is self-evident—motor cars, for instance. In other cases, intending exporters usually supply the required information as a matter of course. Sometimes, naturally, the Board of Trade have to make further inquiries, but these are done as speedily as possible, usually by telephone, in order to minimise delay. It is only very occasionally that exporters have to apply to China for particulars of the purposes to which their intending exports are to be put; then, admittedly, there may be a slight delay, but so far as I know there have been only three or four cases in which such delay has occurred. I should like to emphasise to the noble Viscount that the Board of Trade are most anxious to keep this delay down to a minimum, in the interests of those who are intending to export to China under the exceptions procedure, but I must remind him that we have to 521 make certain that we are not infringing international obligations when we approve these exports.