§ Mr. Parryasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) how much beet raw sugar has been imported into the United Kingdom in each of the past four years, stating the country of origin;
(2) how much refined white sugar has been imported into the United Kingdom per year for the last four years, stating the country of origin.
§ Mr. BishopThe following tables are extracted from the Overseas Trading Accounts prepared by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise. The figures do not distinguish between raw sugar derived from beet and that derived from cane.
157W
IMPORTS OF REFINED WHITE SUGAR INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM—1973–76 BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN Metric Tons Country of Origin 1973 1974 1975 1976 to August Argentina … — 11,491 — — Bahrain … — — 1 1 Barbados … — — 41 — Belgium/Luxembourg … 513 41,651 109,429 7,569 Brunei … — — 21 — Canada … 6 — 6 5 China … — — 2 — Costa Rica … — — 79 — Cuba … — — 4,042 5,677 Czechoslovakia … 2,037 — 1,016 558 Denmark … — 62,697 99,507 49,680 Finland … — 61 — — France … 3,730 99,780 195,338 24,921 Germany (Federal Republic) … 44 97,463 92,958 41,969 Germany (Democratic Republic) … 9 953 — — Guyana … 277 — — — India … 4 — 10,919 40,168 Irish Republic … 10,602 12,727 46,488 16,763 Italy … — 21 — — Japan … 2 — 3 1 Kenya … 29 — — 1 Lebanon … — — 38 — Mauritius … — — — 1 Netherlands … 1,817 12,236 13,177 6,328 Niger … — 3 — — Norway … 15 19 — — Pakistan … 1 — — — Poland … — 4,998 — 51 Saudi Arabia … — — 1 — Singapore … — — 1 1 South Africa … 4 4 20 — Spain … — 10 15 — Sweden … 1 397 1 — Switzerland … 15 554 104 8 U.S.A. … 28 — 7,832 13 Total … 19,134 345,065 581,039 193,715
§ Mr. Parryasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what effect the Government and EEC financial arrangements have had in providing an incentive or disincentive to import white or raw sugar in the last four years.
§ Mr. BishopI regret that it is not possible to provide the assessment requested by my hon. Friend, because of the complexity and speculative nature of such an analysis.