§ Lieut.-Colonel McDONNELLasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department (1) the value of exports of British manufacture from this country to the five self-governing Dominions in 1903 and 1904, and in 1923 and 1924; and the cash value for each of the years mentioned of the preference given to those exports in the tariffs of the Dominions;
(2) the value of exports of British manufacture from this country to the Crown Colonies in 1903 and 1904, and in 1923 and 1924; and the cash value for each of the years mentioned of the preference given to these exports in the tariffs of the Crown Colonies?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERThe following statement gives the particulars of the exports of United Kingdom produce and manufactures to the self-governing Dominions and to other British Possessions in the years named.
661WPrecise figures of the aggregate amount of preferential rebates cannot be given for each year, but it would appear from the latest trade returns showing the necessary details, that the actual duties charged, on importation into the self-governing Dominions, on goods exported from this country in 1923, were less by nearly £12,000,000 than would have been chargeable on similar goods of foreign origin. In the case of the Crown Colonies the information available is not very precise, but it is improbable that the corresponding difference in duties on imports to those Colonies from the United Kingdom, reached £1,000,000 in all.
My hon. and gallant Friend will be aware that, except for Canada, preferential import duties did not operate in the self-governing Dominions for the whole of the year 1903. Information supplied by the representatives of certain of the Dominions at the Imperial Conference of 1907 indicates that, in the year 1905, the aggregate of preferential rebates corresponding to the figure given above for 1923 did not exceed £1,500,000.