§ Mr. Russellasked the President of the Board of Trade what territories are meant by the headings "Arctic Regions" and "Antarctic Regions," respectively, on page 380 of the Trade and Navigation Accounts for December, 1954; and why these headings are included separately, in view of the fact that the only trade with either of these regions in the three years covered by that issue was £10 worth of imports from "Antarctic Regions" in 1952.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe headings "Arctic Regions" and "Antarctic Regions (not British)" relate to the territories within the Arctic or Antarctic Circles, respectively, which are not owned or administered by any Commonwealth232W country and are not included in any of the countries specified elsewhere in Account IV.
The headings were added to the list of countries in 1933 to comply with the requirements of Part II of Annex I to the International Convention relating to Economic Statistics (Geneva, 1928) to which this country was a party. Revisions to this list of countries are at present being prepared by the United Nations Secretariat, on the basis of the resolution adopted by the Economic and Social Council on this subject. Some revision to the United Kingdom headings may be made when the United Nations list is available.
§ Mr. Russellasked the President of the Board of Trade what are the islands in the Indian Sea, not particularly designated, shown as a heading on page 371 of the Trade and Navigation Accounts for December, 1954.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe description "Islands in the Indian Seas (not particularly designated)" which falls under the wider heading of "Commonwealth Countries" in Account IV of the Trade and Navigation Accounts allows the recording of goods imported from or exported to any of the islands in the area of the Indian Seas which do not come under any other heading under "Commonwealth Countries." Traders are not required to specify under this heading, in their Customs declarations, the particular islands with which the trade was done. In 1954, the former heading. "Ceylon and Dependencies," was changed to "Ceylon," and the Maldive Islands which were the sole dependencies should from that date have been declared as coming from "Islands in the Indian Seas."
§ Mr. Russellasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will show in Part IV of future issues of the Trade and Navigation Accounts, imports and exports from Togoland under British trusteeship and Cameroons under British trusteeship separately from those of the Gold Coast and Nigeria, respectively, in view of the fact that trade with the Cameroons and Togoland under French trusteeship is now shown separately from trade with French Equatorial Africa.
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§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe Economic and Social Council of the United Nations has requested
each Member Government, in compiling trade-by-country statistics, so far as it is able, to use the definition of that territory for customs purposes provided by the government concerned as the definition of the territory with which it has traded.In accordance with the Trusteeship Agreement, Togoland and the Cameroons under British trusteeship are adminis- 234W tered as integral parts, respectively, of the Customs Territories of the Gold Coast and Nigeria, so that it would accord with the international recommendation to continue to record this trade as at present, unless there were some special reason for distinguishing United Kingdom trade with these Trust Territories. Togoland and the Cameroons under French trusteeship are administered under a different type of agreement.