§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, further to his reply of 25 May,Official Report, column 744, concerning the cost of the common agricultural policy, whether he will publish in the Official Report his estimate of the increase in the cost of agricultural support to the average consumer in 1988 compared with the year taken by the National Consumer Council in "Consumers and the Common Agricultural Policy" published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office in 1988.
§ Mr. CurryThe National Consumer Council report referred to several assessments of consumer costs of the common agricultural policy undertaken by different researchers. As far as I am aware, only OECD has210W published estimates for 1988. Provisional estimates for Consumer Subsidy Equivalent's (CSE) for the European Community are shown up on pages 96 and 161 of "Agricultural Policies, Markets and Trade: Monitoring and Outlook" (OECD, 1989), available in the Library of the House. The consumer cost, as measured by the CSE for the European Community, fell by around one fifth between 1986 and 1988.
The OECD estimates take no account of the possible increases in world prices if agricultural support in the European Community, and throughout the world, were dismantled: to this extent they are likely significantly to overstate consumer costs.
The Government's aim is to achieve lower levels of agricultural support worldwide, thereby reducing the costs borne by consumers and taxpayers and establishing fair competition between producers.