British Trade, Bkazil.

Part of Orders of the Day — King's Speech. – in the House of Commons at on 24 November 1922.

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Lieut.-Colonel Sir PHILIP RICHARDSON:

I ask the indulgence of the House in making a few brief remarks as a first effort in speaking. There are many more competent than I to deal with large questions, but there are those who would draw attention to matters which are relatively smaller, and I wish to draw the attention of the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the state of our trade with Brazil. Brazil, I need hardly remind Members of this House, is the fourth greatest country in the world, and has a large population of some 30,600,000. It is a country of great possibilities in the matter of mining, agriculture, and other things, and it is a country that buys from us a great number of British goods. During the last few months some Gentlemen who were Members of the late House and who are Members of the present House had the privilege of visiting Brazil and the opportunity of studying trade relations between this country and Brazil, being afforded the greatest assistance by all with whom we came in contact, and I have to express our appreciation of the honour paid to us by the President of the Republic, by the Senate, and by the Chamber of Deputies in receiving us, and in giving us every facility to know that which we desired to know. I also wish to render testimony to the efficacy of the British Chambers of Commerce. Both in Rio de Janeiro and in San Paulo, there are Chambers which look after British interests and take every care of them. While we were there we learned, in relation to our trade, that it was less than it was before the War, as we should expect, because the volume of trade throughout the world is smaller than it used to be, but we were distressed to find that the proportion of British trade had fallen in relation to the trade of other nations.

I should like to give some figures in relation to some of the principal headings. British exports to Brazil, which in 1913 were over £16,000,000 had dropped in 1921 to £12,000,000, but whereas that drop might not appear to be very important in view of the general diminution of trade, the British proportion of the total trade in 1913 was 26 per cent., and in 1921 it was 20 per cent. Consequently we had lost one-fifth of the whole of our trade in exports to Brazil. Similarly in imports, our imports from Brazil in 1913 were over £8,000,000 and in 1921 were £4,000,000. In the former case 15 per cent, of the total trade was done by Great Britain and in the latter case only 7 per cent.; in other words, our trade was halved. Possibly our most important trade with Brazil is the trade in shipping, and in shipping in the two years 1909–1911, going back before the War, the total tonnage entering Brazilian ports was 23,900,000 tons, carried in 23,800 ships. Of this, British tonnage was 7,800,000 tons, in 2,650 ships. In 1921, the number of British ships had fallen to 1,540, and the British tonnage to 5,800,000 tons. The Members whom I had the honour to accompany were very much impressed with this state of affairs in regard to British trade in a country which supplies us with things which we require, and with some things which we cannot do without. I do not think we can do without sugar, frozen meat, rubber, lard, cotton seed, hides, coffee, and tobacco. These are sent from Brazil to this country, and on our side we send in exchange industrial, agricultural, and mining machinery, railway material, locomotives, wagons, iron goods, woollen goods, cotton goods, and so on. These goods are manufactured in various parts of the United Kingdom, and I am sure that all of us, particularly our Friends on the Labour Benches, must take an interest in the increase of that trade.

There are several Members of our party who wish to speak, and I have been asked to give this first sketch and allow others to go still further into the matter. I do not therefore propose to trespass any longer on the time of the House, because I have broadly set forth the condition of our trade in Brazil and shown that we are, in fact, losing our trade, which is being taken by foreign countries. I trust the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department will look into this matter most carefully, because on every side we received a sympathetic reception. The friendship of the Brazilians with Great Britain is traditional, and we found everybody only too anxious to explain why our trade was falling off and to offer us every assurance that it would be very welcome to Brazil if we increased our trade. I trust we are now in for a more prosperous time and that our relations with this great country overseas will not be forgotten, but will be looked into carefully.