HC Deb 17 May 1973 vol 856 cc1680-1
6. Mr. Deakins

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what common agricultural prices in the EEC were not increased at the recent meeting of Agriculture Ministers.

Mr. Godber

As the hon. Member will have seen from the reply which I gave him on 9th May, no change was made in the common prices for seeds for sowing or for certain types of tobacco. The intervention price for butter was reduced. —[Vol. 856, c. 120–6.]

Mr. Deakins

Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that most of the prices of the foods that people eat in this country were increased across the board? Surely that means that, irrespective of the effects in the next year, by the end of the transitional period the British housewife will be paying higher prices for most commodities than would otherwise have been the case.

Mr. Godber

When I returned to the House I made clear, I think, precisely what the increases were, so that the hon. Member is right in saying that there were increases for many commodities. But the point I was trying to stress was that for particular commodities the increase was much less than had been called for by some Ministers. In particular, I attach great importance to keeping the increase on cereals as low as 1 per cent.

Mr. Body

Is it true that the import levy—some might call it the penal taxation—on cheese has risen, this week, from £164 to £245.44? Will this not have a serious effect on prices, or will it merely mean that we shall not be able to import cheese from third countries from now on?

Mr. Godber

Speaking from recollection, I cannot accept the hon. Member's figures. As far as I recall the figure is substantially less than the one given by my hon. Friend. There is a later Question on the Order Paper about butter and cheese, and I shall seek to deal with the matter then.