Tomato Imports

HC Deb 06 July 1954 vol 529 cc1968-9

53. Mr. Delargy

asked the President of the Board of Trade what regulations there are discriminating against the import of tomatoes and tomato products from Europe into the United Kingdom, as between the various producing countries; in respect of what countries licences are normally granted; in respect of what countries licences are normally refused, and for what reasons; and, in particular, to what amount licences have been granted in the last 12 months, to the nearest convenient date, for the import of tomatoes and tomato products from Bulgaria, and to what amount they have been refused.

Mr. Amory

Fresh tomatoes and tomato products from Western Europe are admissible under open general licence. Specific licences for canned and bottled tomatoes are issued under a single quota covering imports from any of the countries in this group. As to Eastern Europe specific licences are required for the import of any of these goods. We are prepared to consider applications from any country for imports of tomato puree; the import of other products from particular countries are licensed in accordance with quotas established under trade agreements. No licences for Bulgarian tomatoes and tomato products have been issued in the 12 months to the end of June and I regret that information about the refusals of licences is not available.

Mr. Delargy

Would the Minister inform the House how many applications for these imports he has received from Bulgaria during those 12 months?

Mr. Amory

No, I am afraid I cannot do that. I have said that none was given and I said in the answer that unfortunately we have no record of the number of refusals.

Mr. Delargy

Why?

Mr. Bing

Is the Minister's Department so ill-organised that it does not keep a record of the people who apply for licences? Would it not be quite simple to look through the applications and to see which were accepted and which were refused?

Mr. Amory

If we had to organise our work specifically in order to answer every conceivable question which could be asked we should have to have a staff two or three times as big as that which we have at present.