TNAG-0389-FCO40-435-Visit-of-trade-mission-of-the-London-Chamber-of-Commerce-and-1973 — Page 49

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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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