Common Agricultural Policy (Hansard, 20 December 1973)

§ 18. Mr. Deakins
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on discussions in the EEC Council about reform of the CAP.

§ 22. Mr. Marten
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on progress towards reforming the common agricultural policy.

§ Mr. Godber
We had a general preliminary discussion of the Commission's report in the Council of Ministers on 19th and 20th November. This was followed by a fuller exchange of views about the Commission's proposals for individual commodities in the meeting on 10th and 11th December.

§ Mr. Deakins
Will the reform proposals make any difference to the present high level of food prices in this country and to the food taxes which are now imposed on food imports?

§ Mr. Godber
It is too early to say what will eventuate from these discussions, which will be long and detailed and will be involved also with discussions about prices within the Community for the forthcoming 12 months. These are the matters which we shall be discussing in the next two or three months. 1596 I could not speculate on the outcome, but in my interventions on these two occasions I have made clear the United Kingdom's opposition to one or two factors which we think are wrong in the Commission's proposals.

§ Mr. Marten
Will my right hon. Friend say what is the definitive date by which we have to reach a decision on the question of sugar? Also, may I say that when he gets down to discussing the question of sugar I hope he will bear in mind that, although the undertaking is to import 1.4 million tons from the Commonwealth sugar-producing countries, that will not be regarded as satisfactory on the Government side of the House unless exports from the Common Market are restricted in the light of world conditions?

§ Mr. Godber
The definitive date when decisions on sugar will have to be taken is February 1975, not February 1974, and I do not expect that we shall get down to serious discussion of the major issues on sugar for some months yet. There will be consideration of the 1974 Community price level of sugar, and that will have to be dealt with in the general price consideration for 1974. But the matters to which my hon. Friend has rightly drawn attention are the ones which will be decided before February 1975, and in relation to those I made the Government's position quite clear in the detailed debate on this subject a short time ago. I do not think that I can usefully add to what I said then.

§ Mr. Shore
Are we to understand from what the Minister has said that not only in these preliminary exchanges have the Government not put forward proposals for removing the CAP from a number of commodities, like sugar and rice, which it at present covers, but, worse still, that it is now actually being proposed that the CAP should be extended to mutton and lamb, so that they would be subject not merely to the food taxes of 1st January, which are duties and tariffs, but to the levies of the CAP?

§ Mr. Godber
It is perfectly true that I did not oppose the existing Community régime. As regards sheepmeat, I have said that the United Kingdom would be prepared to consider a sheepmeat regulation if it were prepared in a form which would meet the requirements of the 1597 United Kingdom, both as a major producer, being the largest producer of sheepmeat in the Community, and also as a major importer, being also the largest importer of sheepmeat in the Community. If we are to have a sheepmeat regulation, I attach great importance to having one which suits our requirements. I said that I would not be prepared to agree to one unless and until it did that. But if we get one which suits our requirements, I see no reason to resist.