HC Deb 15 May 1975 vol 892 c145W
Mr. Hooley

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list in the Official Report those processed agricultural goods not granted duty-free access to the Common Market, and the main suppliers of these goods.

Mr. Strang

To produce a full list would take an incommensurate amount of time and effort. The vast majority of processed agricultural goods are subject to duties on import into the Community from non-preferential suppliers. However, the Community has a number of preferential arrangements. These include the Lomé Convention, which grants some 46 developing countries duty-free entry for almost all goods, including processed agricultural products; agreements with our main Mediterranean and EFTA suppliers and the Generalised Scheme of Preferences. These arrangements, together with our progressive removal of tariffs against the Six, cover a very substantial proportion of our imports of processed agricultural products.