6 I regret, that in certain industrial fields, we in the United Kingdom may have missed out on a whole phase of the technological
revolution. It is not that we lack the knowledge. It is sometimes
that we have failed to put it to the most practical and efficient
use. I would venture to suggest that in commerce, services,
banking, insurance, agriculture, indeed in so many fields of
endeavour we can hold our own and beat most competitors. And
indeed in a whole range of particular industries we are of course
world leaders in technology such as medical equipment, mining
equipment and offshore oil technology. If this were not the
case we would not be able to sell our goods as successfully as
we do.
and
7 The problem which we face between us is that although the
level of direct exports between us is really pretty insignificant
your exports to us represent just over 3 per cent of our total imports and our exports to you represent about one and a half per cent of your total imports you have most successfully
we freely acknowledge this concentrated your attack upon our
market in some of our weakest and most sensitive areas. I do not
need to tell you the extent of the commitment of the new Conservative
Government to bring about industrial change within our country.
In some of the areas of greatest interest to Japan there is already
in the United Kingdom a major shift of employment going on away
from our less efficient industries into the skills of tomorrow
but while this process of change in industry accelerates, as
Secretary of State for Trade, I must tell you bluntly that I am
not going to allow sudden surges of imports to disrupt our
society.
8 In the United Kingdom we believe in open trading; we are
determined to continue our work for world-wide reduction in
non-tariff barriers that in the end make us all the poorer (and
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