Viscountess ASTORasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will give a list of all the treaties with other countries which would compel the British Government to control the quantitative production of food in Britain should the Government feel it necessary to impose quantitative control on foreign food imports; and whether he will give the names of the countries affected by these treaties and the dates when each treaty was made?
§ Mr. COLVILLEThere are three treaties in force which would preclude the quantitative control of foreign food imports unless the production, distribution or consumption of similar foods in the United Kingdom was also controlled. The instruments in question are the Anglo-German Commercial Treaty of 2nd December, 1924, the International Convention for the Abolition of Import and Export Prohibitions and Restrictions of 8th November, 1927 (to which, in addition to the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway are parties), and the Anglo-Persian Tariff Autonomy Treaty of 10th May, 1928, which, though not yet ratified, is provisionally in force. So long as any of these instruments remain in operation, His Majesty's Government would be precluded from applying control to imports from any foreign country with which commercial treaties containing a most-favoured-nation clause are in force, except under the same condition.