Oral Answers to Questions — Fiji – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 June 1964.
Sir Arthur Irvine
, Liverpool Edge Hill
12:00,
16 June 1964
asked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and the Colonies what was the 1963 balance of trade in Fiji.
Mr Nigel Fisher
, Surbiton
There was a trade surplus of about £1·3 million sterling in 1963 compared with a deficit of about £1·5 million in 1962. This was due mainly to increased exports of sugar, and to the higher prices for sugar sold on the world market.
Sir Arthur Irvine
, Liverpool Edge Hill
As this is only the third occasion in the last 12 years when there has been a similar result, could not my hon. Friend offer some word of congratulation to the negotiators involved in it?
Mr Nigel Fisher
, Surbiton
They were very good, and I am very pleased about it, but it is really due to the higher production of sugar, on which we can congratulate Fiji, and the higher price of world sugar, which is quite an extraneous factor.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
