§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) of 10 June 2002,Official 204W Report, column 748W, if he will state which of the countries listed have offset agreements with the UK; what the value of UK defence exports to each listed country in each year since 1997 was; and in how many cases MOUs were signed after June 1997. [63040]
§ Dr. MoonieThe only Government to Government offset arrangement is that associated with the Al Yamamah programme in Saudi Arabia. Otherwise offset arrangements are normally a matter between the customer and the vendor company. Information on commercial offset agreements are not held centrally by the Ministry of Defence and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Lists of licences granted for the countries mentioned in the answer of 10 June can be found in copies of the Strategic Export Controls annual reports for 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000. Copies of these reports can be found in the Library of the House. The 2001 edition is currently being prepared.
Since 1997 the UK Government have signed 47 memorandums of understandings. Countries featured are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, USA.