§ Sir C. Osborneasked the President of the Board of Trade on what grounds he opposed the scheme to save £150 million per annum imports by the substitution of home production proposed at the National Economic Development Council and supported by both the Confederation of British Industry and trades union representatives; and what further measures Her Majesty's Government propose to take to ensure that there is a £300 million per annum balance of payments surplus by the end of the current financial year.
§ Mr. DellThe promotion of import substitution is a major and continuing element in Government economic policy and the scope for further substitution is one of the main subjects of the consultations at present taking place on the basis of the Economic Assessment to 1972 with individual Economic Development Committees. The results of this work will become available in the autumn, and will provide a basis for considering where further efforts should be264W directed, and whether new administrative machinery is needed. In these circumstances, the Government considered that it would be premature to set up at this stage new machinery as proposed at the last meeting of the Council.
As regards the last part of the Question I would refer the hon. Member to what my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer said in the House on 23rd June.—[Vol. 785, c. 1001–10.]