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Investment (Multilateral Agreement)

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what progress has been made in pressing for the Multilateral Agreement on Investment to include a legal requirement for parties not to lower environmental or labour standards in order to attract foreign investment. [15474]

Mrs. Roche: Draft text on this issue has been discussed at the negotiations of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment in Paris. The UK is at the forefront of widespread but not universal support for such a legal requirement. We will continue to press the case up to the conclusion of the negotiations in April 1998.

Animal Testing (Product Labelling)

Mr. Flynn: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans she has to make the use of animal testing a criterion for product labelling; and if she will make a statement. [13688]

Mr. Nigel Griffiths [holding answer 4 November 1997]: The only animal testing issues for which my Department is responsible arise from regulations governing the supply of cosmetic products. This legislation, the Cosmetic Products (Safety) Regulations 1996, requires that where claims are made about the animal testing status of cosmetic products they should state clearly whether the tests carried out involved the product itself or its ingredients.

The Cosmetics Directive (76/768/EEC), which the Regulations implement, is unsatisfactory in its treatment of animal testing issues. In particular, the ban on using ingredients which have been tested on animals (currently deferred until 30 June 2000) does not in any case apply to finished products which may have been tested on animals. I intend to press the Commission to bring forward proposals to amend the Directive and would expect other related issues, such as compulsory labelling of animal testing, to be raised by animal welfare groups at the same time. I shall, of course, consult the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and other interested parties.

Defence Exports

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will list the number of export licences refused in respect of defence exports in each of the years 1979 to 1996. [15181]

13 Nov 1997 : Column: 630

Mrs. Roche [holding answer 10 November 1997]: I refer the hon. Member to my letter of 3 September to the hon. Member for Westbury (Mr. Faber) pursuant to my answer to him of 31 July, Official Report, column 627. A copy of that letter has been placed in the Library of the House.

This answer should be read in the context of my answer to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) on 30 October 1997, Official Report, columns 870-71.

Nuclear Safety (Former Soviet Union)

Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will make a statement on the safeguards training assistance currently being conducted by British Nuclear Fuels in the former Soviet Union. [14716]

Mr. Battle: My Department has in recent years funded a range of collaborative activities designed to help improve nuclear safeguards and nuclear materials accountancy and control arrangements in the former Soviet Union. Details have been provided in papers presented at a number of international safeguards symposia, copies of which have been placed in the Library of the House.

Work involving safeguards experts from BNFL and their counterparts from the Mayak reprocessing plant in Russia has been a particularly important aspect of these activities. This has yielded improvements in nuclear materials accountancy practices at Mayak and also recommendations on further work necessary to bring these practices into line with those at more modern reprocessing plants. The substantial funding necessary to implement fully the recommended programme of nuclear materials accountancy improvements at Mayak is being sought from the European Union's TACIS programme.

China

Mr. Vaz: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will make a statement on the current level of trade between Britain and China. [14692]

Mrs. Roche: The latest information on the level of trade between the UK and China is given in the table.

UK trade with China--current prices, balance of payments basis

	£ million
	Goods			Services
	Exports	Imports	Total trade	Exports	Imports	Total trade
1990	451	539	990	197	67	264
1991	311	651	962	187	74	261
1992	420	883	1,303	142	82	224
1993	748	1,272	2,020	163	126	289
1994	861	1,582	2,443	180	152	332
1995	826	1,829	2,655	200	160	360
1996	740	2,087	2,827	225	150	375

Source:

United Kingdom Balance of Payments, The Pink Book, 1997, ONS.

Information on UK trade in services is only available for our major trading partners.

More up to date figures, for trade in goods only, are available on an Overseas Trade Statistics basis (the main difference between these and the figures on a Balance of Payments basis is that imports, on an OTS basis, include the costs of freight and insurance.

13 Nov 1997 : Column: 631

UK trade in goods--current prices, overseas trade statistics basis

	£ million
Janaury to September	Exports	Imports	Total trade
1996	645	1,611	2,257
1997	523	1,787	2,309

Source:

Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics, ONS.

The main commodities traded in 1996 were as follows:

	£ million
Top 5 UK exports to China
Specialised industrial machinery	112.4
General industrial machinery	98.0
Telecommunications and sound equipment	91.5
Power generating machinery	73.2
Electrical machinery nes(7)	38.5
Top 5 UK imports from India
Articles of apparel and clothing accessories	341.4
Electrical machinery nes(7)	154.4
Telecommunications and sound equipment	130.8
Textile yarn, fabrics, made-up articles, nes(7)	115.6
Manufactures of metal nes(7)	112.1
Office machines and automatic data processing equipment	99.3

(7) Not elsewhere specified within the Standard International Trade Classification.

Information on UK trade in services with individual countries is only available annually.

Source:

Overseas Trade Statistics of the United Kingdom, HM Customs and Excise.

Yemen

Mr. Vaz: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will make a statement on the current level of trade between Britain and Yemen. [14973]

Mrs. Roche: The latest information on the level of trade between the UK and Yemen is given in the table.

UK trade in goods with Yemen--current prices, overseas trade statistics basis

	£ million
	Goods
	Exports	Imports	Total
1990	70.8	36.2	107.1
1991	65.2	16.8	82.0
1992	78.4	56.9	135.3
1993	85.5	16.1	101.5
1994	74.6	5.1	79.6
1995	66.8	4.1	70.9
1996	74.2	8.4	82.6

Source:

United Kingdom Balance of Payments, the Pink Book, 1997, ONS.

Information on UK trade in services is only available for our major trading partners.

More up-to-date figures, for trade in goods only, are available on an Overseas Trade Statistics basis (the main difference between these and figures on a Balance of Payments basis is that imports, on an OTS basis, include the costs of freight and insurance):

13 Nov 1997 : Column: 632

UK trade in goods--current prices, overseas trade statistics basis

	£ million
January to September	Exports	Imports	Total
1996	52.7	6.8	59.4
1997	54.5	4.6	59.1

Source:

Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics, ONS.

The main commodities traded in 1996 were as follows:

	£ million
Top five UK exports to Yemen
Paper, paperboard and articles of paper pulp	7.5
Power generating machinery and equipment	4.5
Chemical materials and products nes(8)	4.4
Professional, scientific and controlling instruments	3.4
General industrial machinery	3.0
Top five UK imports from Yemen
Professional, scientific and controlling instruments	4.5
Power generating machinery and equipment	2.4
Telecommunications and sound recording equipment	0.6
Specialised industrial machinery	0.3
Transport equipment excluding road vehicles	0.2

(8) Not elsewhere specified within the Standard International Trade Classification.

Source:

Overseas Trade Statistics of the United Kingdom, HM Customs and Excise.

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