HC Deb 04 February 1982 vol 17 c182W
Mr. Campbell-Savours

asked the Prime Minister whether, following her reply of 28 January to the hon. Member for Easington (Mr. Dormand), she will list, for areas of Government responsibility such as industry, trade, agriculture, employment, economic policy and so on, those respects in which she considers it in the interest of the United Kingdom to stay in the Common Market.

The Prime Minister

The Government's views about the advantages of our memberhip of the European Community have been set out on numerous occasions inside and outside the House. I do not therefore propose to repeat them in full. I would just mention the advantages we gain from tariff-free acceess to a market of 350 million people, including the Community's European associates, which takes some 60 per cent. of our exports; the consequent attractiveness of this country, with access to that market, to foreign investors, demonstrated by the fact that in 1980 a third of all United States industrial investment world-wide came to Britain, as well as over half of all Japanese investment in Europe; and the enhanced influence in world affairs which we 'gain from acting as a member of the world's largest trading bloc and aid donor. Above all, as I told the right hon. Member for Down, South (Mr. Powell) on 15 December—[Vols. 15, c. 150.]—I believe that membership of the European community is in the best interests of this country for political reasons, representing as it does an area of democratic stability which is vital in the interests of Europe and the larger world.

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