§ Mr. Cantasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has any proposals to amend the scheme for the provision of interest rate subsidies for sterling and dollar loans arranged by the Export Credits Guarantee Department; and whether he will publish estimates of the cost of compensating British exporters for exchange rate risks.
§ Mr. LawsonDiscussions are taking place with the banks reviewing the arrangements for the provision of support to enable United Kingdom exporters to offer finance in sterling and foreign currency at internationally competitive rates of interest. These arrangements also cover home shipbuilding lending. Any changes will be announced when the review is completed.
No scheme exists which is generally designed to compensate exporters for exchange rate risks in export contracts 159W but there is a range of ECGD facilities which help provide some protection to exporters who are contracting in foreign currency. Details of ECGD's operations will be available next month when the Department publishes its trading accounts.