§ Mr. Roperasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made in improving the EEC's trade and aid posture towards the developing countries of the Asian Commonwealth in the last 14 months.
§ Mr. HattersleyAs the White Paper on membership of the European Community (Cmnd. 6003) makes clear, substantial improvements have been secured in the Community's trade and aid policies towards developing countries as a whole. Developing countries in the Asian Commonwealth have benefited from major improvements in the Community's Generalised Scheme of Preferences and can expect to benefit further during future reviews of the scheme; they now receive about double the amount of food aid that they had from the Community 14 months ago; and they are also eligible to receive financial and technical assistance from the Community following the decision of principle taken by the Development Council in July 1974. The Commonwealth Asian countries have received the major part of the Community's contribution to the United Nations emergency measures for countries most seriously affected by oil and other commodity price increases. A Commercial Co-operation Agreement between the Community and India came into force on 1st April 1974 and the Community is in the process of negotiating similar agreements with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.