§ Mr. DafisTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make it his policy during the United Kingdom's presidency of the EC to encourage a Community-wide moratorium on the import of raw logs from the Sarawak region of Malaysia.
137W
§ Mr. NeedhamNo. Import restrictions would rob forests of their value and serve only to speed up the rate of deforestation to free land for alternative uses. Our efforts are best directed at persuading all tropical timber-producing countries to manage their forests on a sustainable basis. The Government of Malaysia have re-affirmed their commitment to the International Tropical Timber Organisation to reduce significantly the amount of timber extracted from Sarawak and to work towards the objective of exporting timber only from sustainably managed forests by the year 2000.
United Kingdom imports—£ million From Textiles SITC division 65 Clothing SITC division 84 Other manufactured goods Manufactured goods sections 5–8 United States of America 1987 131.6 22.0 7,654.1 7,807.7 1988 162.0 30.6 9,096.5 9,289.1 1989 189.7 38.7 11,633.0 11,861.4 1990 193.1 58.8 12,392.9 12,644.8 1991 203.2 65.0 11,709.6 11,977.8 China 1987 60.7 42.1 167.5 270.3 1988 55.4 49.0 202.0 306.4 1989 57.9 51.7 275.7 385.3 1990 60.1 64.5 360.-7 485.3 1991 72.6 106.5 445.6 624.7 Hong Kong 1987 76.2 556.8 869.6 1,502.6 1988 70.0 656.3 1,023.2 1,749.5 1989 63.0 709.3 1,212.5 1,984.8 1990 57.4 693.3 1,181.2 1,931.9 1991 50.4 785.5 1,271.5 2,107.4 Taiwan 1987 29.2 81.3 878.2 988.7 1988 29.0 81.4 1,022.6 1,133.0 1989 36.2 90.5 1,206.8 1,333.5 1990 40.4 70.4 1,081.9 1,192.7 1991 36.0 93.3 1,120.5 1,249.8 Source: Business Monitor MA20, Overseas Trade Statistics of the United Kingdom.