§ 65. Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the additional quantities of food being provided for Ethiopia by the Common Market will be from additional resources or from reducing aid to other countries.
§ Mr. RaisonThe cost of the 1.2 million tonnes of grain pledged by the European Council on 4 December for 20 African countries affected by drought will be met by transfers from other parts of the Community budget not related to aid, from the unallocated emergency provision of the European development fund and from the 1985 Community food aid programme. In addition, member states will make available directly more than one third of the total amount. The British share of those actions will be met from the public expenditure provision for overseas aid.
§ Mr. TaylorIs it not highly disturbing that the total amount of food that the Common Market plans to send to Ethiopia next year is less than the amount sent every six weeks to the Soviet Union? What justification can there be for anyone going without food in Ethiopia when such unmanageable surpluses are being sent to the Soviet Union at vast expense to the British taxpayer?
§ Mr. RaisonMy hon. Friend should realise that the quantity of aid pledged by the Community to Ethiopia and other parts of Africa is very substantial. He should also realise that the sending of Common Market grain surpluses is not a matter of giving something away free. It involves substantial costs—about £250 per tonne of grain transported and delivered in Ethiopia. The equation is thus more complicated than my hon. Friend suggests.