4
In the
have changed their minds about British membership.
first half of 1973 exports to the old Six increased by
nearly 35% and exceeded those to the whole of the
Commonwealth by £ 400
million. But from the first
the London Chamber most warmly supported the "theme" of the
present Lord Mayor of London the "World is our Market",
We are convinced that British membership of the EEC makes
it more than ever important to show the world that we have
not forgotten all our other old friends and traditional
markets : and in the London Chamber we are doing this to
the utmost of our ability.
The promotion of overseas trade is of course a very large part of the Chamber's work. Since 1964 we have organised
over 200 Missions to 80 different countries.
In many
cases our Missions have been trail-blazers, especially to
Eastern Europe, Latin America and more recently francophone
Africa. In the year to June 1973 we ran 11 overseas trade
missions, 25 "joint ventures" at overseas trade fairs and
over 50 businessmen's travel groups. Moreover two of these Missions were of exceptional importance, and of very
happy timing political as well as commercial - Missions
to the Soviet Union and China. We are very proud of their
success.
Our Missions are always organised so that they represent both
manufacturing and service industries and both small and big
firms. We like them too to include importers. So this
Mission which I have the great privilege of leading provides
a good balance between small and large firms, and between
firms which are household names in this part of the world
and others which are exploring this market for the first
time, as well as a wide cross section of capital and consumer
goods and services.
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