§ Mr. Gouldasked the Secretary of State for Trade what is his estimate of the price advantage of imports into the United Kingdom of manufacturing goods derived by: (a) West Germany and (b) EEC countries in general from the removal of tariffs since 1st January 1973; and what movement in the value of sterling between 1973 and the present he estimates would have offset this advantage.
§ Mr. Clinton DavisThe information necessary for such estimates is not readily available. The average tariff level on imports of manufactures from the EEC was around 8 per cent. at the end of 1972 and has since been reduced by four-fifths. The price advantage of some 6½ per cent. which this affords could be offset, other things being equal, by a depreciation of sterling of slightly larger magnitude, to allow for the consequential increased cost of the import content of home-produced goods. But many other factors also enter into the determination of relative competitive positions.