§ Mr. Jayasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will 455W give figures for retail food prices at the present time in the European Economic Community and the United Kingdom, equivalent to those given on page 16, paragraph 28 of Command Paper No. 4289, for October, 1969.
§ Mr. PriorNo. Comparisons of existing prices for particular foods are not a valid basis for estimating the effect of entry on our food prices because they do not take account of factors such as variations in product quality and definition, the effects of consumer preference on supply and demand, the varying incidence of VAT and the different systems of marketing and distribution.