HC Deb 15 January 1992 vol 201 c588W
Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what specific proposals his Department has for the wide distribution of handtools to agrarian developing economies via the United Nations agencies and institutions.

Mrs. Chalker

We have no such plans. Except in cases of humanitarian need where we occasionally provide handtools via the United Nations system to aid post-disaster recovery, we do not consider the wide distribution of handtools to agrarian developing economies to be sound development policy. This process can distort and damage manufacturing sectors in these economies. We prefer instead to stimulate the local production of such tools.