1
-6-
Last
st year
receipts.
a record total of more than £26 billions invisible
Our insid Sector conditure Elomillo. not surplus card, month Invisible income should even grow, with rising
investment overseas.
to our balame of
pagment's
I think I have shown you both that the British economy is on the move again, and that the government, while remaining true to its
philosophy of avoiding intervention for intervention's sake, has
tried to do those things which it can do, to give industry and
commerce/a better environment in which to work and such direct
help as may be appropriate. Our approach differs from that of your
authorities in Hong Kong.
But I believe that in many respects the
underlying spirit is the same.
does add $2.
What do these developments which I have sketched mean for Hong Kong/UK
trade? As our economy picks up so we can expect to import more.
That is already starting to happen. It is a reflection of normal
economic forces.
We offer a large and attractive market. In the first five months
of this year we imported goods worth some £22 billions: in the
March-May quarter our import volume was up 7% over the previous
3 months. It is also a market which is much freer of restrictions
than people sometimes argue. When the Tokyo round of tariff cuts
has been fully implemented our average tariff rate the European
Community's common customs tariff rate - will fall to less than 5%
on industrial goods. The proportion of manufactured imports able
to enter Britain entirely duty free is now almost 80%: that compares in
with less than in 1960. Admittedly the influence of our membership
of the Community is strong in that comparison. But it does not
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