HC Deb 01 December 1980 vol 995 cc16-7W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Secretary of State for Trade whether he will circulate in the Official Report figures for February to April 1980 comparable to those published by his predecessor in reply to Mr. Bryan Gould, on 11 July 1977 concerning the increase in exports of machinery since 1976.

Mr. Tebbit

The available information is as follows:

Exports of Machinery and Transport Equipment 1
Percentage Change February-April 1980 on Same Period a Year Earlier
per cent.
United Kingdom 39
United States of America 20
Federal Republic of Germany 17
Japan 18
France 16
Belgium/Luxembourg 10
Netherlands 14
Italy 183

Note:

Percentage change for United Kingdom is partly inflated by impact of road haulage dispute on figures in base period.

1 SITC (Rev 2) Section 7—Up-to-date information on machinery alone is not available.

2 Based on figures in U.S. dollar values.

3 October-December 1979 on a year earlier.

SourceOECD Series A.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Secretary of State for Trade, further to his reply of 1 July to the hon. Member for Grimsby, concerning trade in machinery, whether he will now publish figures for the second and third quarters and for October 1980 on the same basis.

Mr. Tebbit

Following are the figures:

Terms of trade† Relative volume‡
Consumer Intermediate Capital Consumer Intermediate Capital
Second quarter 1980 130 132 109 62 72 59
Third quarter 1980 141 134 112 60 72 64
October 1980 140 135 115 55 85 68
* SITC (R2) Divisions 71 to 77.
† Export unit value index as a percentage of import unit value index.
‡ Export volume index as a percentage of import volume index.
SA=seasonally adjusted; NSA=not seasonally adjusted.