§ Mr. Ellis Smithasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will set out in tabular form the number of applications received for licences to export machine tools to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the number granted, the value and weight in hundredweights for those refused and granted, respectively, for each year up to the latest date, since the restrictions were imposed; and the same figures for the three highest pre-war years.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe information asked for could be extracted only at the cost of time and labour which would not be justified. Moreover, the information would give no true indication of the volume of actual trade, or of trade which was frustrated. As to the last part of the Question, export licences were not required for machine tools before the war.
§ Mr. Ellis Smithasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will set out in tabular form typical examples in description, value and weight in hundredweights, of applications for licences refused for exports to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of engineering products.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftI do not think that such a statement would be helpful since it would give no true indication of the volume of trade affected. Moreover any analysis of export licence applications involves a considerable diversion of time and labour from the current work of the Export Licensing Branch. The lists published in the Board of Trade Journal on 16th October last show the classes of engineering goods which are subject to restriction if intended for export to the U.S.S.R.
§ Mr. Ellis Smithasked the President of the Board of Trade to set out in tabular form up to the latest date and for 1946, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, and the three highest pre-war years, the value and weight in hundredweights, of engineering products exported to China, the number of applications for licences to export, and the number refused since 1950.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe table below shows the value of exports to China, for the years in question (since 1926) of engineering products comprised by Divisions D 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 22 of the trade classification as shown in the Trade232W and Navigation Accounts. Comprehensive figures of weight are not available.
Year Value (£'000) 1929* … 1,860 1930* … 1,731 1935 … 1,630 1946 … 1,747 1948 … 3,554 1950 … 919 1952 … 630 1953 … 1,072 1954 … 1,326 * Excludes Manchuria and Kwantung Peninsula. The information about applications for licences could be extracted only at a cost in time and labour which would not be justified.