§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for Trade what representations have been received by his Department over irrevocable letters of credit, between British exporters and importers, for textile imports, whereby payment is not required from the importer until the operating bank abroad pays the exporter.
§ Mr. DeakinsI have received representations from a number of firms and organisations, comprising both importers and manufacturers. By and large, the importers are naturally concerned at the potential loss to them if goods ordered on letters of credit are not given import licences; the manufacturers are equally naturally concerned at the loss of potential business to them if import licences are given.
§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for Trade which developed countries export textiles to the United Kingdom; what is the volume and value of those textiles over the last five years; and what is the present balance of trade position of each of those countries with the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. DeakinsThe United Kingdom imports textiles from virtually every developed country. Information in the detail requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, the broad picture can be gained from the figures for SITC(R) Division 65 published in Table 1 of Volume 1 of the 303W Annual Statement of Overseas Trade for years 1970 to 1973 and Table 11 of the December 1974 issue of the Overseas Trade Statistics of the United Kingdom.
Balance of trade figures are not available with individual countries on a balance of payments basis. The crude trade balance—i.e. the difference between imports c.i.f. and exports f.o.b.—with each of the countries with which we trade can be obtained from Tables II and V of the monthly Overseas Trade Statistics.
§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for Trade how many anti-dumping applications have been made by British interests against textiles imports; how many such applications are being considered currently; and how many such applications have been agreed.
§ Mr. DeakinsSince the beginning of 1975 the Department has received one formal application for anti-dumping action against textile imports. This application was accepted for full investigation on 4th September 1975. It relates to double and single textured raincoats from Hong Kong and South Korea. The investigation is now under way.
TERMS OF TRADE* United Kingdom German FR France Italy United States Japan OECD† 1973— 1st quarter … … 97.5 104.0 103.7 95.8 94.2 102.0 100.0 2nd quarter … … 93.9 103.9 106.5 91.7 90.8 98.0 97.9 3rd quarter … … 88.3 107.0 105.4 90.4 93.4 100.9 98.2 4th quarter … … 84.4 100.9 104.2 87.3 91.3 98.3 96.0 1974— 1st quarter … … 76.8 92.7 86.9 75.1 85.5 80.8 87.6 2nd quarter … … 75.4 95.3 87.5 72.9 77.6 76.9 84.8 3rd quarter … … 77.3 96.2 87.9 73.8 77.6 79.8 85.6 4th quarter … … 78.8 98.5 88.6 76.9 79.7 77.9 86.5 1975— 1st quarter … … 80.0 103.1 89.1 78.3 81.7 74.2 87.5 2nd quarter … … 83.2 103.9 96.9 .. 80.1 73.8 .. * Export average value index as a percentage of import average value index 1970=100. † Member countries average value index numbers in national currency terms weighted together by the value of trade in 1970. No index numbers are published by the OECD for Iceland, New Zealand. Portugal and Turkey; these countries are excluded .. Not available Source: OECD statistics of Foreign Trade—Series A.