§ 3. Mr. Bodyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue has been derived from import levies on common wheat in the 12 months prior to the last convenient date.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonFor statistical and tariff purposes common wheat includes meslin, a mixture of wheat and rye, and figures are not available for common wheat separately. The net revenue derived from import levies on common wheat and meslin in the 12 months ending April 1977 was nearly £13 million.
§ Mr. BodyIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that that is an enormous figure, which is really a tax upon food and represents no less than 39 per cent. on the price of imported wheat? How can he justify this to any constituent of his? Is he aware that the United States Department of Agriculture is now considering a policy of setting aside acres, as it is called, and thereby prohibiting American farmers, who can grow wheat more cheaply than anyone else, from growing that wheat, because of the system of levies and the way in which they are shutting out wheat from this country?
§ Mr. SheldonThe hon. Gentleman will know the obligations that we entered into. These levies are a consequence of our obligations. I understand the point that the hon. Gentleman has raised, and that he believes that food will be rather harder to obtain on the world market in future, perhaps, than it has been in the past—
§ Mr. Sheldon—and that this may not be the best way to conduct our operations in future.