§ 3.5 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 their representative in the China Committee of the Consultative Group was consulted before the decision announced by the Japanese Government on 27th November, 1956, to sell to China a large range of embargoed goods from the exhibition of Japanese industrial products held in Peking and Shanghai in the last months of 1956; and, if so, whether the British representative on the China Committee supported the Japanese proposal.]
THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE EARL OF GOSFORD)My Lords, my information is that when the Japanese Minister for External Trade announced to the Japanese Chamber of Commerce on November 27 that his Government would be prepared to authorise the sale to China of the goods shown in the exhibition of Japanese industrial products, he made it clear that licences for the sale of embargoed goods to China would be authorised only in accordance with the China Committee procedures. Furthermore, I am informed that none of the embargoed goods were, in fact, sold to China. The Japanese Government are scrupulously correct in observing China Committee regulations, and in view of the fact that negotiations for the sale of embargoed goods did not materialise, it 120 was in no way necessary for them to consult or report to the China Committee. The China Committee were consulted before the exhibition was sent to China.
VISCOUNT ELIBANKMy Lords, I beg to thank the noble Earl for his Answer. Arising out of it, may I ask him whether he is aware that many British industrialists are not satisfied with this form of control, known as "Cocom", which strangles the initiative of British business men in their efforts to do trade with China, even under the exceptions procedure, and which, it is apparent, has no equivalent restraining influence on their competitors?
THE EARL OF GOSFORDMy Lords, I can assure the noble Viscount that the Government are fully aware of the remarks which he has just made.
VISCOUNT ELIBANKMy Lords, I beg to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will publish a revised version of the list of items subject to embargo for China which appeared in the Board of Trade Journal on 23rd June, 1951, indicating the changes which have been made in the embargo list since that date.]
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, since June 23, 1951, there have been no changes in the list of goods embargoed to China except the addition of platform and forklift trucks in April, 1953, and the removal in October, 1953, of ordinary passenger cars and sodium peroxide. Those changes have already been announced, and publication of a revised list does not therefore seem to be necessary.
VISCOUNT ELIBANKMy Lords, I beg to thank the noble Lord for his reply. Does it include the cars which were removed from the embargo list announced by Mr. Thorneycroft, then President of the Board of Trade, in another place on January 21, 1954?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, I do not think that I can expand my reference to ordinary passenger cars beyond what I have already said.