§ Mr. Shersbyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the latest estimate made by his Department of the amount of Commonwealth sugar committed for export to the United Kingdom during 1975; and at what price.
§ Mr. StrangWe expect that the negotiations between the Community and the developing sugar exporting countries of the Commonwealth will begin soon. It will become clear in these negotiations how much sugar the countries concerned will be prepared to supply in 1975 and at what price. I have no reason to suppose that they will not be prepared to supply the full 1.4 million tons if they consider that the price and other terms of the arrangements are satisfactory.
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§ Mr. Shersbyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT details of the mechanism whereby sugar will be supplied to the United Kingdom under the arrangements agreed at the meeting of the EEC Council of Agricultural Ministers on 21st and 22nd October, together with an estimate of the price at which it will be available, and the earliest expected date of shipment.
§ Mr. StrangThe Council decided that measures should be taken to meet the whole of the EEC's deficit for 1974–75, but adopted a particular method only in respect of the first 200,000 metric tons. A number of the details of this method remain to be settled, but it seems probable that it will operate as follows.
A series of tenders will be held at which Community traders will submit bids for rates of subsidy on the import from the world market of quantities of sugar nominated by them. They will be required to sell the sugar on the internal EEC market at a reasonable price. Successful bidders will acquire the right to export a corresponding quantity of Community sugar free of export levy during a subsequent period. The trader must, therefore, assess the present value of this right, and submit a bid for a rate of subsidy sufficient to cover the balance of the loss involved in the importation and sale of the sugar.
The price at which the sugar is sold internally must be reasonable in relation to the EEC threshold price. It seems likely that the import licences issued immediately after each tender to the successful bidders will be valid for a given period from the day of their issue, so that the import of the sugar concerned could take place at any time during the period.