§ Mr. Hardyasked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will list the countries with which the current trading deficit is regarded by him as grossly unsatisfactory and the four countries which provide the worst deficit.
§ Mr. ShoreThe United Kingdom is a major trading country which has transactions with most of the other countries of the world and our performance depends upon multilateral rather than a bilateral approach to trade. I am of course concerned about developments with individual trading partners but in order for last year's improvement in our balance of payments position to continue it is necessary for us to make the most of our export opportunities wherever they arise.
Balance of trade figures with individual countries are not available on a balance of payments basis. Figures of the "crude" trade balance—that is, the difference between exports valued fob 307W and imports valued cif—show that in 1975 the four countries with the largest deficits were the Netherlands, West Germany, Saudi Arabia and the United States of America.