§ 40 and 41. Commander BELLAIRS asked the President of the Board of Trade (1) whether he can give for the latest year available the value of the imports into Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the United States of America which were admitted free of duty;
367§ (2) whether he can give for the latest year available the value of the exports from Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United States of America which were admitted free of duty?
§ Sir B. CHADWICKAs the reply is a long one, my hon. and gallant Friend will perhaps agree to my circulating it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Following is the reply:
§ In the year 1924 the value of merchandise consigned from the United States, which was imported free of duty, into Great Britain and Northern Ireland was £215,543,000, or 89 per cent. of the total imports from the United States in that year. Similar particulars have not been compiled for a later year.
§ I am unable to allocate British exports to the United States according to whether or not they were dutiable on importation into that country; but, according to figures published by the United States authorities, the value of the duty-free imports of merchandise from Great Britain and Ireland in 1924 was approximately £30,600,000, or 37 per cent. of the total imports from Great Britain and Ireland, and in 1925, from Great Britain and Northern Ireland £39,450,000, or 46 per cent. of the total imports from the United Kingdom. These figures include merchandise imported from this country but originating elsewhere, and there is reason to suppose that, owing to the nature of the goods, the dutiable proportions of the imports recorded as from this country but originating elsewhere, were lower than in the case of goods of British origin.