§ Mr. Gouldasked the Secretary of State for Trade whether exports of manufactures are rising faster or more slowly than the exports of manufactures by EEC countries as a whole, and by Germany, Japan, France and the United States individually.
§ Mr. MeacherThe availability of information on exports of manufactures by the individual main manufacturing countries varies. Information on value, 381W some of which is still provisional, is available for the first half of 1976 for all the countries covered in the question, but figures for EEC relate to the original six member countries. Exports of manufactures by Ireland and Denmark are comparatively small. Between the first halves of 1975 and 1976, the dollar value of exports of manufactures by the United Kingdom increased slightly faster than those of the original EEC and faster than France, but more slowly than for Japan, United States and the German Federal Republic. The picture remains the same for the individual countries for a comparison based on the first three quarters of 1975 and 1976, but complete information for the third quarter of 1976 for the EEC is not available. The latest information is published in Table 13, page 656, of the 11th March issue of Trade and Industry. The table also contains information on the volume of exports of manufactures by the main manufacturing countries, although, generally, this is less up to date than the value figures.