§ Mr. Luceasked the Minister for Trade what has been the balance and overall level of trade between the United Kingdom and the francophone countries of Africa in the past five years; and what plans Her Majesty's Government have to improve trade with those countries.
§ Mr. Peter ReesThe overall level and balance of trade over the last five years was as follows:
£ million 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 United Kingdom exports (fob) 355 343 443 470 537 United Kingdom imports (cif) 251 298 332 449 404 Crude balance to United Kingdom +104 +45 +111 +21 +133 Source:
United Kingdom Overseas Trade Statistics, SITC(R2) (1981 basis).
Notes:
(a) 'Francophone Africa' has been defined as the following countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Comoros, Mayotte and Madagascar.
(b) The export figure for 1981 includes an estimate of exports for March to August of that year.
We expect an improvement in trade to result from a number of initiatives taken in the major markets over the last three years. These include the signature with the Cameroon Government of a £40 million aid and credit agreement for the supply of United Kingdom goods and services; the generation of £80 million worth of business from United Kingdom participation in the Transgabonais railway in Gabon; the signature with the Algerian Government of a memorandum of understanding which could lead to the construction by United Kingdom companies of up to 20,000 housing units and several vocational training centres in Algeria; and the supply of £27 million of railway equipment by British Rail Engineering Limited and the British Steel Corporation to Congo. The momentum is being maintained by my own and other Ministers' forthcoming visits to francophone Africa this year, on some of which we will be accompanied by business men.