§ Sir T. Mooreasked the President of the Board of Trade the present balance of payments position as between Great Britain and Benelux; and to what extent this position has varied since the percentage of trade between the United Kingdom and Benelux countries has been further liberalised.
§ Sir D. EcclesSo far as our visible balance of trade is concerned, the value c.i.f. of our imports exceeded the value f.o.b. of our exports and re-exports in 1956 by £12 million. In 1957 there was a corresponding excess of exports and re-exports over imports of £10 million. The difference in the position between these two years was, however, due for the most part to changes in the level of imports and exports of goods other than those which were liberalised in this period. I regret that statistics of our balance of payments as a whole with the Benelux countries, which depend not only on our balance of trade but also on invisible transactions, are not available.