Embassies: UK Commercial Staff (Hansard, 26 April 1982)

§ Lord Shinwell
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Belstead)
My Lords, of the 208 diplomatic service posts overseas (of which 151 are embassies and high commissions), 183 have a trained commercial staff. The function of this staff is to provide a wide range of services to British exporters, who frequently commend the help they have received.

§ Lord Shinwell
My Lords, I am obliged to the noble Lord for his Answer. It is a factual reply, but I am not sure that it is encouraging enough. Would he agree with me that not a solution itself but an approach to the solution of the unemployment problem is the revival of international trade— buying and selling, high production (cheap production, if possible) and high consumption? That is what is required. There are millions of people in the world who want more goods—more implements, more housing and all the rest—and there are millions of people who are ready to do the work in order to provide them. Would the Minister devote a little more attention to ascertaining whether our commercial attachés—I am not making any criticism of them—are getting their backs into it and boosting trade relations?

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I agree entirely with the noble Lord that the commercial officers in posts overseas do a very good job.

The Earl of Halsbury
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that whenever in the past I had business overseas I always took a letter of introduction to the commercial counsellor at the local embassy and that always I found him to be very well informed and enormously helpful?

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I am extremely grateful to the noble Earl.

§ Lord Glenkinglas
My Lords, would my noble friend study the question of agricultural exports? Having had a great deal of experience in foreign posts, may I say that this was the one failure in a good many of 698 them because so few people were trained in agriculture. And they were mostly in the Argentine, which we can forget for the moment.

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I will look particularly at this point which my noble friend draws to my attention.

Lord Oram
My Lords, would the noble Lord agree that particularly in relation to developing countries it is important that these commercial advisers should also be as expert as possible in the development needs of the country where they are serving? Supplying those development needs very much fits in with the kind of thing which my noble friend Lord Shinwell has in mind.

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, with his extensive experience of trade matters. It is worth making the point that I tried to look up what I hoped would be some suitable statistics. Although I realise that Nigeria is a country very rich in raw materials, none the less there is presumably a great deal of development work there to be done. The latest figures which I have, giving Nigeria as an example, show an 89 per cent. increase in our exports to Nigeria in 1980 compared with 1979. Somebody has been doing a lot of good work in that way. I think that it is a combination of our firms in this country and of the work which is done in the posts overseas.

Lord Bruce of Donington
My Lords, with those considerations in mind, will the noble Lord resist any endeavours which are made by various Ministers, and in particular by the right honourable lady the Prime Minister herself, to effect cuts in staff? Will the noble Lord resist such cuts in respect of commercial counsellors in the embassies, bearing in mind the excellent job which they do? Will the noble Lord also bear in mind that, far from decreasing the number which are employed, a great effort should be made to increase their number?

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, the department of my right honourable friend the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary has got manpower targets, just like other Government departments, which fall within the general policy of the Government, and those targets we intend to achieve.

§ Lord Energlyn
My Lords, while expressing great admiration for the trade counsellors in the various embassies I have had contact with throughout the world, and while supporting the Question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Shinwell, that we have here potentially the greatest sales organisation available to us, may I ask the Minister whether he is prepared to consider the suggestion that a review committee might be set up? There is nothing invidious about this suggestion, because the trade counsellors themselves would like their status to be clarified. They themselves do not know quite how far to go.

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I should like to draw the suggestion of the noble Lord on that point to the attention of my right honourable friend.

§ Lord Leatherland
My Lords, the noble Lord gave figures of our exports to Nigeria. Could he also give the figures relating to our imports from that country, which I think were slightly in excess of the exports?

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I am afraid I cannot do so. I admit that the figures which I gave were selective.

§ Lord Auckland
My Lords, would my noble friend not agree that our honorary consuls in many countries, particularly in America and Scandinavia, do a first-class job? On that basis, would he convey the congratulations of the House to his right honourable friend?

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for those remarks.

§ Lord Shinwell
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that I make no criticism of the commercial attachés or diplomats? What applies to those who work on behalf of the Government and the country applies equally to those in industry. All I am asking for is that they should get their backs into it at a time when we need their services more than ever.

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I entirely agree with the noble Lord. I assure him that there is nothing between the noble Lord and the Government and, I think, the rest of the House on this particular matter.

§ Lord De Freyne
My Lords, my noble friend mentioned an 89 per cent. increase in exports between our country and Nigeria. Can he say how far back he is going on that statement—and by how much?

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, that was a figure comparing 1980 with 1979.