§ SIR GILBERT PARKER (Gravesend)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the rates of duty obtained for the goods mentioned below in the commercial treaty with Roumania are higher or lower than the duties levied on the same goods under the Roumanian tariff which was in force up to the end of February 1906; and, if so, by how much the duties have been increased or diminished, and what are approximately the proportions of our total trade with Roumania affected by such changes of duty; the goods are specified under Nos. 102, 108, 190, 207, 324, 325, 333–340, 350, 358–360, 362–364 368, 369, 371, 381, 443, 579, 590, 591, 622, 786, 788, 845–847 (see Cd. 2828); and whether the reductions of duty of the new general tariff of Roumania secured by the United Kingdom by the treaty with that country are extended to Germany under the most-favoured-nation clause of the treaty between Germany and Roumania.
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGEThe annual value of imports from the United Kingdom into Roumania covered by the Schedule attached to the Anglo-Roumanian Commercial Treaty and the supplementary agreement of February last, amounts to about £1,120,000, i.e., £617,000 on which the duties of the new Roumanian Tariff have been reduced, and £503,000 on which they have been conventionalised. Compared with the old Roumanian tariff the new conventional rates on these articles are reduced on imports to the value of £245,000; remain unchanged on imports to the value of £8,000,000; and are increased on imports to the value of £867,000. I shall be happy to give the hon. Member a list of the new and old duties showing the amount of the reductions and increases in each case. All the tariff reductions provided for in the Anglo-Roumanian treaty are extended to Germany under the treaty between Germany and Roumania. The German imports benefiting by these reductions amount to about £150,000 or rather less than a quarter of the corresponding imports from the United Kingdom.