22 March 1989]
[Chairman Contd]
THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
RT HON SIR GEOFFREY HOWE, QC, MR ROBIN MCLAREN, CMG, and MR ALAN Paul
to be further extended in readiness for its becoming a British Consulate General in 1997 and we are already planning for a well located proper Consul- ate General building at that time, so it will be a very sizeable inclusion among our largest posts. I think you will find all the normal trade promotion activities, inward missions, exhibitions and so on are sustained and managed by our Trade Com- missioner, and Ministers of course have given very powerful support as well. That said, I think one finds in relation to Hong Kong and in relation to China and in relation to Singapore that there is certainly room for expansion of our share of the market. It is surprising in China-I have not got the figure here for that, I am speaking from mem- ory that the UK share of the Chinese import market is about 2.5 per cent and the French share is about 4 per cent, and the German share about 9 per cent. I think that does not reflect any short- coming in ministerial, political, governmental activity; it reflects the fact that under this Govern- ment we have checked the decline in the UK share of world trade and initiated some improvement in some places, but there is still a long way to go if British industry is to be as successful as we would all wish.
Mr Taylor
70. Secretary of State, just to clarify this, are you saying British business should pull its finger out a bit more?
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) I would never express myself so crudely, Mr Taylor, but that is the burden of the song that I sing to many business audiences
up and down the country.
Chairman
29
[Continued
71. Sir Geoffrey, this is just the outset of our inquiry and, of course, it has been immensely valu- able to us to be able to share your thoughts and views on the whole situation in relation to Hong Kong and its very exciting future. Is there anything you would like to say at the end of this opening session to help guide us on our way because, quite frankly, we are new to some of these subjects and are finding our way into them and, no doubt, there are many complexities lying ahead.
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) I would not want to burden you with any further observations now, Chairman, except to say one thing. If when we look through the transcript of what I have been saying we find there are obvious errors in amplification I hope the Committee will forgive us if we put in some supplementary written material, because it is quite difficult with such complicated stuff to get every- thing in on every point and, of course, we are ready to answer any questions you put in further written material as you please.
Chairman: I think it remains for me then on behalf of the Committee, Secretary of State, to thank you for coming to visit us again and for dealing in such a masterly fashion with the detailed complexities of this immense issue. We appreciate your time and your careful attention to this issue very much indeed, and we look forward to seeing you again when we have been on our travels and returned. Thank you very much indeed, and thank you to your colleagues.
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