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PART II
3.
PERSPECTIVE AND SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The study should be seen in the general context of UK trade and aid, which is
briefly analysed in Annex A. Some illustrative figures are that in 1971 UK
exports were about £9,000m of which 28% went to developing countries.
cash aid programme was £269m.
4.
The gross
Recommendation (a) of the Adams Report quoted above was made in the context
of an increasing aid programme which was expected to provide scope, with the
fulfilment of existing commitments, for more emphasis on the countries and forms
of aid offering special advantage to our economic and political interests. These
expectations have been modified by events. The aid programme has come under
severe pressure from various quarters and in particular from the effects of war in
the sub continent. While these pressures should decline, it has been thought
necessary to bring forward resources from later years of the current Survey period
which have subsequently to be replaced. This rearrangement of resources has
resulted in the following programmes, announced in Cand 5178:
1972/73
£275m
1973/74
£270m
1974/75
£281m
1975/76
£294m
1976/77
£324m
There are various potential claims on the aid programme up to 1975/76 under matters
still to be negotiated in the EEC context, which cannot at this stage be defined
or quantified. In addition the new enlarged EDF will require substantial contri-
butions after 1975/76, when (on present figures) the increase in the programme is
10% in real terms. The freedom of manoeuvre has thus become circumscribed in the
next year or two and may well be less than was hoped for last year.
A
5. Recognition of this situation emphasised the need to consider the Adams
Recommendation (a) together with Recommendation (b) an examination in depth of
the relationship between aid operations and commercial benefits as there is
scope throughout the programme for ways in which, apart from changes in country
allocations and without undermining the developmental soundness of the programme,
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