§ 24. Mr. Colvinasked the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has for improving the "two way street" of reciprocal sales of defence equipment between the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
§ Mr. PattieSince 1978 when the balance of defence trade was 4:1 in favour of the United States it has improved to around 2:1 for the last two years. British defence equipment manufacturers have been competing successfully in United States defence programmes and we shall continue to encourage and support them in this activity. We shall also continue to remind the American Administration that United Kingdom firms should be allowed to compete without restriction in United States programmes in the spirit of the 1975 Memorandum of Understanding.
§ 29. Mr. Warrenasked the Secretary of State for Defence what are the total sales recorded to the most recent date for which statistics are available of British defence exports to United States Government contracts and of American defence exports to British Government contracts under the current memorandum of understanding between the two countries.
§ Mr. PattieThe balance of trade in defence equipment between the United States and Britain has stood at around 2:1 in favour of the United States for the last two years, but it has not been the practice of this or previous Governments to publish detailed figures for our defence trade with individual countries.