HC Deb 11 May 1983 vol 42 cc287-9W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Minister for Trade, further to his reply dated 15 March, Official Report, c. 77–80, concerning tariffs on United Kingdom imports of manufactures, whether he will publish a table in the Official Report showing the value of trade under each heading, or the proportion, exempt from duty under the tariff when imported from most favoured nation status countries; and if he will add figures for non-manufacture goods.

Mr. Peter Rees

Most favoured nation status is given to all countries which are not members of the European Community. The proportions of imports of manufactures from all non-EC countries admitted duty free in 1980 are shown in table A for each section and division of the SITC.

The weighted average tariffs for non-manufactured goods and the proportions of imports of these products from non-EC countries admitted duty free in 1980 are shown in table B for each section and division of the SITC.

Table A
SITC (R2) Proportion of non-EC imports admitted duty free
per cent.
Division
51 71
52 78
53 59
54 66
55 55
56 90
57 87
58 50
59 54
Section
5 65
Division
61 55
62 43
63 72
64 69
65 43
66 97
67 52
68 92
69 48
Section
6 79
Division
71 85
72 41
73 33
74 44
75 16
76 31
77 30
78 30
79 99
Section
7 51
Division
81 48
82 33
83 11
84 30
85 16
87 55
88 33
89 56
Section
8 41

Table B
SITC (R2) Weighted average tariff* Proportion of non-EC imports admitted duty free
per cent. per cent.
Division
00 10.7 †100
01 20.0 24
02 — 100
03 8.6 28
04 14.0 98
05 11.8 20
06 22.2 97
07 8.0 84
08 2.4 91

SITC (R2) Weighted average tariff* Proportion of non-EC imports admitted duty free
per cent. per cent.
09 20.0 15
Section
0 13.0 59
Division
11 8.7 16
12 10.5 34
Section
1 9.6 26
Division
21 — 100
22 9.4 100
23 3.2 100
24 4.7 99
25 — 100
26 7.2 96
27 3.3 99
28 5.5 100
29 11.5 71
Section
2 8.5 98
Division
32 — 100
33 5.5 100
34 1.7 100
35 — 100
Section
3 5.4 100
Division
41 4.6 94
42 5.9 33
43 8.8 65
Section
4 6.1 56
Section
9 2.4 92
* These are calculated by dividing the customs duty charged by the value of the dutiable imports.
† In a number of cases a small amount of imports were dutiable but the proportion admitted duty free was in excess of 99.5 per cent, and was therefore rounded to 100 per cent.