2
CONFIDENTIAL
18 March 1977
REVIEW OF AID/TRADE POLICY
Report of working Party
I INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
Following Ministerial correspondence in the autumn of 1976 about the particular problems met by UK contractors in obtaining Kenyan railway contracts, a general review of the co-ordination of aid arrangements so as to deal quickly with Credit Mixte offers by our competitors was proposed. The Prime Minister welcomed this review and asked the Secretary of State for Trade, in consultation with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Minister of Overseas Development to report to him on this matter and to extend the review to cover the general issue of the co-ordination of policy on trade and aid. The Prime Minister confirmed that the aim should be to ensure wherever possible that, while following HMG's broad objectives of trying to direct UK aid to those who need it most, UK exports are helped at the same time. An inter-Departmental Working Party, chaired by DOT, with members drawn from DOT, ODM, FCO, Treasury, DOI and ECGD was established to carry out this review and its report follows.
2 In the context of total UK visible exports it is clear that any impetus which these exports may derive from aid funds should not be over-rated though it may well be significant in specific product sectors and countries. In outline the UK record in 1975 was:
Total visible exports
Visible exports to developing world (excluding oil exporting countries and centrally planned economies)
£m
18,768
2,721
Total gross overseas development assistance (ODA)
432
of which multilateral aid
133
bilateral technical co-operation
96