§ 30. Mr. Hollandasked the Secretary of State for Trade what discussions he has had recently in OECD regarding the balance of international trade; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ShoreThe international balance of payments situation was discussed at the meeting of Ministers of OECD countries, under the chairmanship of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which I attended on 29th May. The Ministers decided to renew for a further year the declaration which they adopted in May last year and under which they declared their determination to avoid introducing new restrictions on trade and other current account trans-32W actions. In accepting this declaration on behalf of the United Kingdom, I made it clear that I did so only on the understanding that the countries in a stronger economic position recognised the obligation to play their part by following sufficiently expansionary domestic policies so as to sustain international demand and to avoid making the problem for the deficit countries intolerable.