§ Mr. Ellis Smithasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will ensure that the maximum service provided by the Trade Facilities Acts will be available when required for all orders obtained through the five-year Trade Agreement with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; and if he will publish advice on how it will be administered.
§ Sir D. EcclesThe authority conveyed to the Treasury by the Trade Facilities Acts, 1921–26, has now expired. The normal facilities of the Export Credits Guarantee Department are available for exports to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
§ Mr. Ellis Smithasked the President of the Board of Trade if, during the negotiations in London on the carrying out of the five-year Trade Agreement with representatives of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, he will invite them or their representatives to visit Stoke-on-Trent to see the pottery, rubber tyre, ceramic engineering, and uniform clothing factories, to Manchester to see the 131W Shirley Institute, and the engineering, cotton, and man-made fibre factories, to Trafford Park, Liverpool and Stafford to see the modern capital equipment, the electronic control equipment, and the steel tyre plant, to North Staffordshire and Hern Heath to see the methods of conveying gas direct from the pits, to the Crewe railway works to see the methods of engine construction and patterns made in plastics, and to Little Hulton to see the patterns made for plastics.
§ Sir D. EcclesI will bear the hon. Member's suggestion in mind when the Soviet delegation come here next year to review the Trade Agreement.