§ 3.5 p.m.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they can state the quantity and value of manufactured copper products sold to China since the export of this metal to that country was first permitted as an exception to the embargo.]
§ THE MINISTER WITHOUT PORTFOLIO (THE EARL OF DUNDEE)My Lords, exports of copper metal to China were never permitted as an exception to the embargo. Since the beginning of last year, when export licences were first made available for exports of copper wire to China, our exports to China of copper semi-manufactures have amounted to £5.6 million. In the same period our exports to China of metal manufactures of all kinds amounted to £600,000. Separate figures for copper manufactures are not available.
VISCOUNT ELIBANKMy Lords, may I ask the noble Earl whether the figure of £5.6 million does not show the value to the exporting trades of this country of standing up to Washington both in the Consultative Committee in Paris and at the higher levels and thereby bringing out a reduction of the embargo?
§ THE EARL OF DUNDEEMy Lords, this matter is a little complicated. There is a distinction between copper metal— that is, raw metal—copper wire, copper semi-manufactures, and copper manufactures—for which, as I said, no separate figures are available. The figure I have given to your Lordships is for copper semi-manufactures, and the embargo on those was removed in August, 1958. There was a further relaxation in restrictions on exports in August of last year which applies to a much smaller class of goods.
VISCOUNT ELIBANKMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Earl. But does not the figure he has given prove that standing up to the United States in this matter has had most satisfactory results for the export trade of this country?
§ LORD SHEPHERDMy Lords, can the noble Earl say how those figures compare with exports of Western Germany to China?
§ THE EARL OF DUNDEENo, my Lords, not without notice; at least, not so far as copper is concerned.
§ LORD WILMOT OF SELMESTONMy Lords, would the noble Earl undertake to make a fresh examination of this whole business of embargo on exports to China? because I think he will find that some of the regulations are already obsolete, and often we find that the countries that are subject to these embargoes are exporting the very things which we refuse to allow them to import.
§ THE EARL OF DUNDEEMy Lords, the embargo on goods to China has been progressively relaxed in stages over the last year or more, and the goods which are now prohibited are now much more limited than they were. In the same way, I understand that the embargo on goods to the Soviet bloc is not nearly so wide as it was at the time of the Korean war.