§ 90 and 92. Mr. Osborneasked the President of the Board of Trade (1) why re-exports to the Union of Soviet Socialist 29W Republics for the first nine months of 1952 are £29,924,000 against £14,313,000 for 1951 and £952,000 for 1950; and in what classes of merchandise these big increases have taken place;
(2) what are the main classes of goods imported from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the first nine months of 1952, costing £47,779,000, as compared with £39,497,000 in 1951 and £24,532,000 in 1950; and why exports and re-exports this year amount only to less than £32,000,000.
§ Mr. MackesonThe increase in our re-exports to the U.S.S.R. is due almost entirely to a change in the Soviet Union's arrangements for the purchase of rubber. The Soviet Union has, since the beginning of 1951, bought more through the United Kingdom and less direct from Malaya.
The imports from the U.S.S.R. in the first nine months of 1952 consisted mainly of grain. The other main items were timber, undressed furskins and canned fish.
Our combined exports and re-exports to the U.S.S.R. are this year considerably higher than in 1951, but exports taken alone are about the same. Exports are not higher because some of our products have been denied for strategic reasons and because the Soviet Union declines to buy most of the products which we are ready and willing to sell.