§ Q1. Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Prime Minister if she will raise, at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers, the issues raised by the monthly reports submitted to the Council by the Commission on trends in agricultural spending in accordance with the 4 December 1984 agreement.
§ The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)The Commission has produced these reports partly in response to my hon. Friend's persistent questioning. The issues raised by these reports have been considered by the Budget Council in its discussions on the 1986 budget.
§ Mr. TaylorAs the 1–4 VAT rate, which was meant to last for several years, has now been fully budgeted this year, and as the Council has clearly abandoned any attempt to control agricultural spending, can the Prime Minister now give some indication to British farmers, to the Third world countries that are savaged by Common Market dumping, and to the Soviet Union, which benefits hugely from Common Market dumping, as to what will happen when, almost inevitably later this year, the Common Market is bankrupt once again and runs out of funds?
§ The Prime MinisterThe revised Community budget for 1986 has now been adopted and this replaces the budget ruled illegal by the European Court of Justice. We believe that the new, revised budget makes adequate provision to meet all the Community's agricultural obligations. We do not expect any significant overrun into 1987. I must say that I agree with some of my hon. Friend's strictures on the effect of dumping surpluses on other countries.
§ Mr. SkinnerIs the Prime Minister aware that at Whitwell in my constituency the Coal Board has just closed a pit even though it has made a profit—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The question is about the EEC.
§ Mr. SkinnerYes—even though it made a profit for the greater part of the 100 years that it was open. The Common Market has been bankrupt for about five years out of the last 10—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The question is about agricultural spending, in the EEC.
§ Mr. SkinnerYes. The Common Market has been bankrupt for about five years out of the last 10 and, if it 589 had been a coal mine, this Prime Minister would have shut it. Why does she not get on with it and save the British taxpayer some money for a change?
§ The Prime MinisterMay I remind the hon. Gentleman that the taxpayer this year, in spite of the closing of a number of pits, will still pay something like £1.5 billion for the coal industry. With regard to the common agricultural policy, this year's price fixing was estimated to reduce spending by 320 million ecu in 1986 and 457 million ecu in 1987. Community financing of intervention was also cut, saving the budget 350 million ecu a year, so we are in fact steadily dealing with the problems of the common agricultural policy, in the same way as we are dealing steadily with the coal industry.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I remind the House that this is a definitive question, a rare occasion for Prime Minister's Questions. We must stick to the subject.
§ Mr. Ralph HowellMay I refer to the approach that has been made to my right hon. Friend by Sir Henry Plumb, the leader of the European Conservative parliamentary group, asking her to call a world food conference on the twin problems of embarrassing food surpluses in the Western world and starvation in the less developed countries? Will she give the House an assurance that she will take the lead and call urgently a food conference in London at the earliest possible moment?
§ The Prime MinisterThe question of surpluses between the major producing countries was, as my hon. Friend knows, discussed at the Tokyo summit. We are in touch and in close consultation with the United States about those matters. We also agreed there that the proper forum for it to be discussed was in the new GATT round, which we are hoping will began in September. That should, and indeed must, include the whole question of agricultural surpluses and how to deal with them.