§ 7. Mr. Lewisasked the President of the Board of Trade the numbers of American cars, and the dollar costs involved, which have been imported into this country in each of the years from 1951; and whether, during the period of our balance of payments problem and the present recession in the British motorcar industry, he will ban the import of such vehicles.
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§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftImports of cars for general sale from the United States of America and Canada together are limited by quota to 650 a year. I do not consider that it would be to our ultimate advantage to withdraw this facility from the United States, a country to which our own industry exports about 20,000 cars a year.
The following are the figures:
UNITED KINGDOM IMPORTS OF NEW CARS FROM THE UNITED STATES Year Number Value £ 1951 … 94 84,840 1952 … 102 101,045 1953 … 128 108,821 1954 … 212 189,498 1955 … 528 502,477 Jan.—May 1956 … 180 180,561