§ 117. Mr. A. Lewisasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement about the meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the World Conference on Trade and Employment.
§ Sir S. CrippsIn accordance with the statement which my right hon. Friend the Lord President of the Council made in this Rouse on 15th April last, a meeting of representatives of a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, in preparation for an International Conference on Trade and Employment has recently been held in London. This preparatory meeting had originally been called at the initiative of the Government of the United States but it was subsequently decided that responsibility for it, as far as the full International Conference which was to follow it is concerned, should be assumed by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
This Preparatory Committee assembled on 15th October and its final meeting was, held on 26th November. It was attended by representatives of all the 15 countries named in the original invitation, with the exception of the U.S.S.R., which found itself unable to be represented on this occasion, and in addition by representatives of Norway, Chile and the Lebanon, which countries were added by the relevant resolution of the Economic and Social Council. As foreshadowed in the statement, the meeting of this Preparatory Committee was preceded by a meeting of representatives of the Members of the British Commonwealth. The intention is that the Preparatory Committee should hold a second session at Geneva in the Spring next year, when it is expected that detailed tariff negotiations will take place between the countries forming its members, and further consideration will be given to the recommendations on trade and employment questions which have just been under discussion in London. I should make it clear that there has as yet been no discussion of actual tariffs or preferences.
I should also make it clear that, in accordance with the purpose for which it was called, this session of the Preparatory Committee, has been exploratory and educational; no attempt has been made to take decisions committing the Governments represented. In the main, the 351W delegates were on the official or expert level, though the Delegation of the United Kingdom was led by my hon. Friend the Secretary for Overseas Trade. The main topics discussed were provisions relating to the maintenance of full employment, industrial development, commodity policy, restrictive practices; a wide field of general commercial provisions dealing among other things with state trading, quantitative restrictions, exchange control and the reduction of tariff barriers; and finally provision for the establishment of an International Trade Organisation.
The recommendations as to these will be found in the full report on the proceedings which will be issued in the near future by the Secretariat of the United Nations, and copies of this report will be made available for hon. Members. I should like to take this opportunity of saying that these discussions have proved most successful in the sense that it has been possible for full consideration to be given to a wide range of subjects and for a very large measure of common thinking to emerge. His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom will for their part give the report their very early and close attention, and I have every hope that they will be able to approve the bulk of the recommendations as constituting a most valuable step in the task which lies ahead in the field of international employment and trade policy.