§ Mr. Spearingasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will tabulate in theOfficial Reportthe monetary compensation amounts—MCAs that would have been payable for each of the principal commodities of the common agricultural policy on 6th November 162W 1978, if the agricultural unit of account were based on the estimated value of the ECU, with no co-efficient adjustment, as well as those actually in operation at that time.
§ Mr. Bishop:Column I in the following table shows the United Kingdom monetary compensatory amounts which would have applied on 6th November had the ECU been used in the common agricultural policy on that date with no coefficient adjustment. Column II shows the MCAs actually in force on that date.
Column I Column II Barley (£/tonne) 6.63 23.75 Wheat (£/tonne) 7.47 26.75 Butter (82 per cent. fat) (£/tonne) 128.56 460.44 Skimmed milk powder (£/tonne) 52.24; 187.09 White sugar (£/tonne) 19.30 69.20 Live cattle (p/live kg) 5.56 19.93 Pig carcases 52.16 186.80 Notes:
1. ECU MCAs are based on the same time period (25th to 31st October) as that used to calculate the MCAs applying on 6th November and assume that the definition of the ECU is the same as that of European unit of account (EUA).
2. The MCA percentages upon which the figures in column 11 are based, are after deduction of the arbitrary 1.5 percentage points applied to the MCAs of floating devaluing countries; those in column I do not take account of this deduction.
§ Mr. Spearingasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will tabulate in theOfficial Reportthe weighted average increase of EEC prices of commodities covered by the common agricultural policy since 1st April 1978 and those increases in each member State arising from respective re-valuation of green currencies on or after that date.
§ Mr. Bishop:The average increase in common support prices agreed by the Council of Ministers on 8th to 12th May was just over 2 per cent. Changes in representative—" green "—rates agreed at the same time caused an offsetting fall of 0.23 per cent. in national support prices in the Federal Republic of Germany and further increases of 7.61 per cent. for pigmeat and 3.73 per cent. for all other 163W sectors in France, 5.29 per cent. in Italy and 6.38 per cent. in Ireland. This produces an overall weighted average increase of about 4½ per cent.