§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Trade what was the weight attached to imports and exports of machinery under the trade classification adopted in the tables attached to the press notice on the monthly trade figures; and how these are distributed by weight under the new classification.
§ Mr. ParkinsonThe weight given to machinery continues to be 286 parts per 1,000 of export trade and 137 parts per 1,000 of import trade. These weights are distributed among the headings of the new classification as follows:
Exports other consumer 12 intermediate 128 capital 146 Imports other consumer 14 intermediate 61 capital 62
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Trade whether he will publish a table in the Official Report showing the weights to be attached to the new import and export classification in tables 8–14 of the statistics attached to the press notice in the monthly trade figures.
§ Mr. ParkinsonWeights are relevant only to the tables of volume and unit 751W value index numbers—9, 10, 13 and 14. The weights for the export series are given in table 9, and for imports in table 13. For ease of reference, from next month these will be repeated, as appropriate, in tables 10 and 14.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Trade whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing volume and unit values for each category of exports in each year since 1970 on the basis shown in the tables attached to the press notice on the January trade figures.
§ Mr. ParkinsonThis information is included in the article "United Kingdom Visible Trade in the Fourth Quarter and Year, 1979", published inBritish Business on 14 March.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Trade what groups of products are included under the last three headings of manufactured goods specified in the tables attached to the press notice on the monthly trade figures.
§ Mr. ParkinsonThe three series given in the press notice allocate finished manufacturers, other than erratics—ships, North Sea installations and aircraft—to the United Nations (UN) classification by broad economic category. A list of the main products included in these series was given in an article which appeared inTrade and Industry—now British Business—on 15 June 1979. A more detailed description of the classification may be found in the UN statistical paper, series M53. "Classification by broad economic categories", published in 1976. Copies of both these publications are available in the House of Commons Library.