§ MR. J. A. PEASETo ask the Secretary to the Board of Trade upon how many articles an import tariff was placed during the last financial year in Great Britain, the United States, France, Russia, and Germany respectively.
(Answered by Mr. Bonar Law.) If the hon. Member refers to articles on which import duties were imposed by the countries named for the first time during 1903–4, the answer is "none." If the Question relates to the number of articles actually charged with duty, it would be difficult to give the information in a form which is not misleading, owing to the various modes in which articles are grouped together or sub-divided in the different tariffs. For instance, the French tariff contains 654 tariff headings, while the number in the German tariff is 43.