HC Deb 05 July 1960 vol 626 cc219-20
33. Mr. Jay

asked the President of the Board of Trade what has been the total value in the present year of United Kingdom imports of a type from which quota restrictions have been removed in the past two years.

The Minister of State, Board of Trade (Mr. F. J. Erroll)

I regret that this information is not readily available.

Mr. Jay

Can the Minister explain why that was so, and if he cannot give the figure now, will he give it to us within a reasonable period of time?

Mr. Erroll

The reason is that the liberalisation measures of the last two years covered a very large number of individual commodities and applied only to certain areas. Therefore, it would require a great deal of additional work to extract the information in the form which the right hon. Gentleman requires. If he cares to have a word with me about the matter, I shall be glad to see whether I can help him in any way.