§ Mr. D. Priceasked the President of the Board of Trade what was the total value of British imports in the years 1954, 1955 and 1956 which benefited from imperial preference; and how this total was divided according to country of origin, and according to category of product, respectively.
§ Sir D. EcclesMuch detailed information about net imports admitted to preference and retained for home use is published in the supplement to Volume II of "The Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom with Commonwealth and Foreign Countries 1954" and in the "Annual Report of the Commissioners of H.M. Customs & Excise for the years ended 31st March, 1954, and 1955," while Volume II of the Statement analyses total imports of each commodity by principal countries of consignment. I regret, however, that statistics in the form requested are not available, and could not be prepared without a disproportionate amount of labour.