§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline the specific proposals he put to the Japanese authorities concerning the liberalisation of trade with that country.
§ Sir Geoffrey HoweI expressed to the Japanese Government our serious concern at Japan's growing structural trade surplus. I urged them to take further steps to increase imports of manufactured goods, and I indicated areas where more could be done. I drew particular attention to the scope for the import of such major items154W of capital equipment as the BAE 146 and Shorts SD 330/360 civil aircraft. I also stressed the importance we attach to making further progress on the rollback of protectionism in the OECD and GATT and the need for further liberalisation of the Japanese money and capital markets, on which a statement is expected from the Japanese Government later this month. Significant progress in this area would considerable enhance business opportunities for United Kingdom financial institutions and could help to encourage the yen to reflect the underlying competitiveness of the Japanese economy. I also emphasised that any measures introduced by the Japanese authorities should take account of the repeated and forceful representations made by the European Community and in particular of the Community's latest trade requests.