§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the countries outside Lomé to which the EEC is willing to extend the STABEX system of export price stabilisation; and if the Council of Ministers will follow the Commission's request of extending the scheme only to countries with respectable human rights records.
§ Mr. RifkindThe new European Community scheme is intended to help the least developed countries (as defined by the United Nations) which are not covered by the Lomé convention. These are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Haiti, Laos, Maldives, Nepal, the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. But in announcing the scheme at the 235W recent mid-term review of the substantial new programme of action in Geneva, the Community made it clear that its offer was subject to certain conditions, among them respect for human rights.