Mr. Gresham Cookeasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether, following his decision that members of the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement should be compensated for the Sugar Board's increased surcharge imposed at the end of 1961, when a change was made in the pricing arrangements for sugar in the United Kingdom, he will now state the amount of compensation paid to Commonwealth producers under these arrangements during 1962; and who were the recipients.
§ Mr. Scott-HopkinsThe negotiated price for 1962 under the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement includes an element intended to compensate the members of the Agreement for the lower price they receive on exports of sugar outside the negotiated price quota as a result of the change in the pricing arrangements for sugar made at the end of 1961. The size of this element depends on the actual shipments of such sugar during the year ending 31st December, 1962. Full details of the shipments have not yet been submitted to the Sugar Board. From the information in its possession it estimates that the payments under this arrangement for 1962 are likely to be of the order of £570,000, most of which is related to shipments from Mauritius and Australia and a relatively small amount from British14W Guiana. In addition payments totalling approximately £1.6 million are being made to Mauritius, Fiji, the West Indies, British Guiana and British Honduras in replacement of the benefits which these countries used to receive from the system of colonial tariff preference certificates which was brought to an end in the 1952 Budget.