§ Mr. David Huntasked the Secretary of State for Trade (1) what progress he has made with the other EEC members on agreeing co-ordinated defence measures to meet the Soviet maritime threat; and if he will make a statement;
(2)what steps his Department has taken to protect British shipping from the Soviet maritime threat in the three years since the publication of the General Council of British Shipping's leaflet "Red Ensign versus Red Flag"; and what progress he has made over this period.
(3)what additional information he has obtained in the past 12 months on the extent of the Soviet maritime threat; and if he is satisfied with his Department's present system of monitoring the liner shipping activities of the Soviet merchant fleet.
(4) what progress he has made in his Government's pursuit of an improved statistical reporting system for all members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to monitor the increasing market share captured by COMECON liners mentioned in his Written Answer to the hon. Member for Wirral on Monday 6th February;
(5) how many Russian ships are operating as cross-traders in the international liner trades; what is their tonnage; and if he will give comparable figures for 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively;
(6) what additional information he hopes to gain from the proposed EEC system for monitoring the Soviet maritime threat;
(7) what progress he has made with the other EEC members on agreeing co-ordinated defence measures to meet the Soviet maritime threat; and if he will make a statement;
(8) what steps his Department has taken to protect British shipping from the Soviet 732W maritime threat in the three years since the publication of the General Council of British Shipping's leaflet ` Red Ensign versus Red Flag'; and what progress he has made over this period:
(9) what additional information he has obtained in the last 12 months on the ex-tent of the Soviet maritime threat; and if he is satisfied with his Department's pre-sent system of monitoring the liner ship-ping activities of the Soviet merchant fleet
(10) what progress he has made in his Government's pursuit of an improved statistical reporting system for all members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to monitor the increasing market share captured by COMECON liners mentioned in his Written Answer to the honourable Member for Wirral on Monday 6th February;
(11) how many Russian ships are operating as cross traders in the inter-national liner trades; what is their tonnage; and if he will give comparable figures for 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively;
(12) what additional information he hopes to gain from the proposed EEC system for monitoring the Soviet maritime threat.
§ Mr. John SmithThe effect of Soviet liner companies acting as cross-traders in the United Kingdom direct trade routes can be quantified, but no official data are available from which to quantify this effect on all the international liner cross-trades.
I am unable to give the number and tonnage of Soviet ships operating on the liner cross-trades in recent years. Official Soviet statistics show that the volume of cargo carried by their ships in these trades has expanded tenfold in the period 1965–1976 but has now stabilised. West-ern shipowner sources confirm only a marginal increase in the level of services offered by Soviet shipping lines during the past 12-month period.
The Government have looked into data collection on Soviet carryings in the liner cross-trades within the OECD. Although difficulties have arisen because of the in-compatibility of data collection and analysis undertaken by member countries, some progress has been made and I am hopeful 733W that experience gained in the proposed EEC monitoring exercise will help here.
The draft EEC proposals are to monitor carriage of cargo by all liner carriers on designated trade routes serving the EEC. These proposals have been placed before the Scrutiny Committees and are presently under consideration in Brussels at the Council of Ministers (Transport). The proposed routes include the one to East Africa on which the Soviet Besta Line operates. We expect to obtain additional information on that route following analysis of the data collected.
I am satisfied that the Department of Trade's present system for monitoring the activities of the Soviet merchant fleet on the United Kingdom's direct trades is sufficiently thorough. The Department has been able to monitor the extent of cargo carried by Soviet ships, by main commodity groupings, since January 1977. Measures have also been taken recently to correlate official data on trade routes to the international liner conference routes of which British lines are members. This will make a valuable contribution to the proposed EEC system.
The United Kingdom sees the draft EEC proposals as an essential precursor to defensive action on an EEC-wide basis, should this be shown to be necessary. We believe that the EEC should pursue its intent to examine the practicalities of introducing countermeasures.
The Department of Trade has also pursued its objectives through bilateral discussions with the Soviet maritime authorities. In the last two years there have been several meetings at ministerial and official level, the latter including representatives from the industry. Some improvement in the United Kingdom share of bilateral liner traffic has been obtained, but progress towards an accommodation on Soviet cross-trade activity has so far been disappointing.