§ Mr. Nabarroasked the President of the Board of Trade the countries of origin for the carpet imports proposed as the subject of reduction; the methods to be adopted for securing the reduction in imports; the total estimated value of the reductions in carpet imports during 1952; and the estimated total retained value of carpet imports during 1952.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe countries affected by the restrictions on imports of carpets, which were imposed on 8th November, 1951, are the following:
Member countries of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation and their dependencies:
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Trieste, Turkey, Western Germany.Other countries:
Afghanistan, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Andorra, Bhutan, Brazil, Chile, China (including Manchuria), Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Formosa, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Paraguay, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Siam, Spain, Syria, Uruguay, Yemen.The open general licence permitting carpets to be imported freely from these countries has been revoked and separate licences are now required. The import licensing arrangements were announced in Notice to Importers No. 464 and the value of the relevant quotas for period ending 30th June, 1952, were announced in Notice to Importers No. 467. In view of the fact that carpets can still be imported on open general licence from a number of countries and of the general uncertainty of the market, it is not possible to give a worthwhile estimate of the total value of carpet imports from these or other sources during 1952.