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Balance of Trade
5. Mr. Olner: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what was the trade deficit with non-EU countries in 1995. [13507]
Mr. Oppenheim: The trade deficit with non-EU countries in 1995 was £7.5 billion.
Mr. Olner: Does that figure not show that manufacturing industry has been grossly inadequately looked after during the Government's stewardship? Is the Minister aware that the United Kingdom's deficit in manufactured goods is almost the worst in the world? The Government should do something about that.
Mr. Oppenheim: I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman is aware that we also show a massive surplus on our invisible trade with non-EU countries. Those are important industries, not to be sneered at. If we factor them into the equation, the result is a massive surplus with non-EU countries.
Mr. Dunn: How would our trade with overseas countries be liable to be helped by the imposition of a minimum wage, which would cost jobs, and by the imposition of the social chapter, which would put the trade unions back in control?
Mr. Oppenheim: I entirely agree with the drift of my hon. Friend's point. The Opposition are very good at producing political escalator muzak--motherhood and apple pie, which sound good--but if they ever came to power we would have a tax on wages and jobs.
Mr. Sheerman: The Minister must know that we have had a deficit in manufactured products since 1983--let us get the record straight. It relates directly to the fact that, since 1979, there has been a 10 per cent. decline in investment in manufacturing industry. When the Minister talks to people, will he talk to them about long-term investment in our manufacturing sector--of the kind that has not taken place in recent years under the Conservative Government?
Mr. Oppenheim: I must take issue with the hon. Gentleman about one thing: there was only one year under the last Labour Government when our trade was in surplus--it was in deficit for all the other years. Secondly, the position of our manufacturing industry has been dramatically transformed. Our manufacturing productivity growth in the 1960s and 1970s was bottom of the league of major industrialised countries. Since 1980, we have been top of that league. That is reflected in the enhanced performance of our manufactured exports, which are now 90 per cent. higher in volume than in 1979.
Exports to Latin America
7. Mr. Jacques Arnold: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what support his Department is giving to exporters to Latin America. [13509]
Mr. Nelson: Nine export promoters are helping UK companies win business in Latin American markets, 26 trade missions and eight trade fairs are planned this year, and my Department has launched a three-year export promotion campaign, "Link into Latin America".
Mr. Arnold: May I congratulate my right hon. and hon. Friends on inventing the posts of trade promoters, and say that the work that they have done already is remarkably
effective? One of the best ways in which Ministers can help British exports to Latin America is by continuing their growing practice of leading trade missions. I wish the Minister well for his forthcoming visit to Brazil, the powerhouse of Latin America, and to Chile.
When the Minister and his colleagues consider the transatlantic trade arrangements and the free trade area, will he bear in mind that the other side of the Atlantic does not consist solely of north America but also includes the powerful and growing economies of Latin America, which offer Britain such great opportunities? Will he do all he can to further Europe's transatlantic arrangements with the whole of America?
Mr. Nelson:
I am grateful for my hon. Friend's sentiments. Latin America is increasingly recognised as a target and a priority market, although our performance there has not always matched expectations. I was down Mexico way myself last week, and I am off to Chile and Brazil next week, so I shall be doing as my hon. Friend suggests, taking with me business men and women from this country who are forging new markets with new products in Latin America. That is good. It is important to recognise, as my hon. Friend does, that the Americas are a big market. Mercosur and the North American Free Trade Agreement countries are increasingly making overtures to each other. Just as they regard the United Kingdom as the gateway to Europe, we must regard some of those countries as the gateway to NAFTA and Mercosur.
Mr. Dalyell:
If the Minister can go down Mexico way, how about up the Orinoco? As the new Venezuelan ambassador has outlined the opportunities which exist in Venezuela, where we have less than 1 per cent. of the market--rather less than previously--could the three-year programme pay some attention to Venezuela?
Mr. Nelson:
I take what the hon. Gentleman says seriously because he knows the country and the market. We have a market plan for Venezuela. He is right that it is an important market--it is, I believe, the 12th largest petroleum producer in the world--but it has serious economic issues to address. Inflation is running at between 70 and 90 per cent.--almost reminiscent of inflation rates under Labour Governments--it has had to devalue substantially, its exports are subject to great controls and it has stopped payments on, for example, the Scotch whisky industry, which is the biggest market in Latin America. There will be huge opportunities if it can get its economic act in order. If it can do that with the help of the International Monetary Fund later this year, the market will once again be open for business and British business men will be there in force.
8. Mr. Fabricant:
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what action he is taking to promote trade with the United States of America; and if he will make a statement. [13510]
The President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Mr. Ian Lang):
Overseas trade services, administered jointly by my Department and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
My Department's "North America Now" campaign has for the past three years assisted British companies seeking to do business in the United States. The second phase of the campaign--to be launched in May--will continue the good work, focusing on opportunities for British businesses tackling the United States service sector.
Mr. Fabricant:
I am grateful for that full and detailed answer. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, as well as concentrating on exports to Europe, with which we have a long trading tradition, it is important to maintain ties with North America? It is no coincidence that the biggest single investor in capital in the United Kingdom is the United States and the biggest single investor in the United States is the United Kingdom. That is due not only to the common language but to the common legal system that we enjoy. Does my right hon. Friend agree that trade with the United States, let alone that with France and Germany, would be greatly damaged if a Labour Government were ever elected, and that a national minimum wage would price our workers out of their jobs?
Mr. Lang:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. British exports to the United States last year were valued at £18 billion, an increase of 6.7 per cent., which is a good measure of improved British competitiveness and perhaps one of the reasons why unemployment has fallen yet again in the past month by 29,300, taking the rate down to 7.9 per cent. My right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary and I are keen to have increased trade liberalisation across the Atlantic between the United States and Canada and Britain in the context of World Trade Organisation trade liberalisation world wide.
Mr. Bell:
The House should welcome the question asked by the hon. Member for Mid-Staffordshire (Mr. Fabricant). The last time we had such a question was in 1903 from Austen Chamberlain, who believed in imperial preference and split the Tory party. I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman has the same hopes, but we shall watch his contribution in Lichfield with great interest.
Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that tariffs between the United States and the European Union are down to 4 per cent. and that if we want to develop world trade it should be done through the financial services sector? My hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Mrs. Roche) talked about the enterprise centre of Europe. Are not all the questions about American trade a smokescreen for competitive devaluations which regard the European Union as a single unit instead of getting down to the real question of a European Union in which we are at the centre of events?
Mr. Lang:
The hon. Gentleman is talking absolute nonsense. He is right to the extent that the improved tariff relationship between the United States and Europe, as a consequence of the recent completion of the Uruguay round, has increased the prospects for further trade liberalisation and enhanced the opportunities for trade
Sir Donald Thompson:
Does my right hon. Friend recall what he was told the other day in my constituency by representatives of a carpet firm that is exporting to America and, indeed, all over the world--as is a local machine tool company? They told him that, increasingly, competition abroad comes not from foreign companies but from other British companies.
Mr. Lang:
I well remember my very encouraging visit to my hon. Friend's constituency. I also remember the enthusiastic support for the Government's economic and financial policies that I encountered there, and the success stories of our many manufacturing exporters which are contributing to the record figures that we are now achieving in the United States.
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