BRITAIN’S STAKE IN SUEZ CANAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 68, 3 January 1947, Page 8

BRITAIN’S STAKE IN SUEZ CANAL

TRADE STATISTICS

LEADING EXPORT MARKET

Britain’s stake in the peace of the Middle East and the security of the Suez Canal is illumined by the usually unromantic statistics issued by the Board of Trade.

About one-third of the money being brought in from exports to pay for imports now comes from goods that pass through the Suez Canal on the way to their eventual destinations. Considerable additional revenue comes from goods unloaded in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The leading export market in the second quarter of this year was India, which took goods valued at more than £19,000,000. Close behind came South Africa, at more than £16,000,000. Third was Australia, at more than £14,000,000. Also among the first dozen markets was New Zealand with £6,000,000. Egypt bought a shade more even than New Zealand.

The United States bought less British goods than Eire, coming seventh on the list, with purchases at £8,900,000. In the month of July, Britain reached a new high in exports, with a total value of £91,000,000, compared with a monthly average of £39,200,000. In terms of volume the July exports were 120 per cent, of the 1938 figure. This shows Britain just beyond the two-thirds mark in its race toward the export target of 175 per cent, of the pre-war level. Leading groups of exports in July were vehicles and aircraft at £ll,000,000, machinery at £10,900,000, and then iron and steel. But if Britain is able to congratulate itself on the success of its export drive up to July it has some hard thinking to do as a result of remarks of H. A. Marquand, Secretary of Overseas Trade.

“We are still far from the target of 175 per cent.” Mr Marquand declared. “It becomes increasingly difficult to attain that target.”

“There can be no doubt that the next phase is going to call for even greater effort than the previous phases. The months ahead are full of difficulties and if we fail to achieve odr objective the future will be very grim indeed.” Steel is shown as one of the problems. Production is up to capacity now and Britain will have to wait a long time before any results are seen from reconstruction of the industry under the new Steel Board. There also have been difficulties over imports of semi-finished materials. The Board of Trade also sees signs of the ending of the “seller’s market,” and has issued a call to exporters to consider the problems of market research, industrial design, better salesmanship and advertising, and maintenance of reputation for the quality of British goods. Economically reassuring as regards the British trade position, however, is the balance of imports and exports. July saw a 'deficit of only £4,800,000, which probably was more than balanced by invisible exports such as shipping services. July was an exceptional month, so this figure is not representative. But there is every reason to expect that the final deficit for the year probably will be nearer £400,000,000 than the £750,000,000 estimated by Dr. Hugh Dalton, Chancellor of the Exchequer.