§ Mr. Squireasked the Secretary of State for Trade how many bilateral trading agreements the European Community has signed with individual countries; which countries are thus covered; and to which commodity agreements the Community is a signatory.
§ Mrs. Sally OppenheimThe Community has concluded preferential trade, association or co-operation agreements with. 20 countries: Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland; Spain; Cyprus, Malta and Turkey; and Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yugoslavia. Under the terms of the Lomé convention, preferences are given to 61 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
With most of the above countries, including the ACPs, the Community has separate agreements governing trade in ECSC products. The Community has signed non-preferential or framework co-operation agreements with the Association of South-East Asian Nations and with Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. There are also separate agreements with Bangladesh and India about trade in jute products. With Romania the Community has an industrial products and a joint Commission agreement.
The Community is a signatory to international commodity agreements on cocoa, coffee, olive oil, rubber, tin and wheat.
The Community is also a signatory of the multi-fibre arrangement, which regulates international trade in textiles; this is supplemented by 26 bilateral textile agreements with individual suppliers. There is also a textiles agreement with China on similar lines.