§ Mr. ClappisonTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will consider the division of balance of payments figures into different categories so as to show the imports and exports of food, oil, manufactured products, goods for retail sale, cars and aircraft and also into categories which show import and export figures for European and non-European countries; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NelsonThe Central Statistical Office already publishes separate figures for the following categories of overseas trade in a monthly press notice and monthly "Review of External Trade Statistics":
- Food, beverages and tobacco;
- Oil;
- Manufactures;
- Consumer goods (as opposed to capital and intermediate goods within manufacturers);
- Passenger motor cars;
- Trade with European countries (distinguishing between the European Community, the rest of Western Europe and Eastern Europe including the former Soviet Union);
- Trade with non-European countries (distinguishing between various area groupings).
Consolidated figures are not published for aircraft as the amount of trade in them is relatively small and highly erratic, but monthly data on exports and imports of individual types of aircraft are published by the CSO in a business monitor—MM20—"Overseas Trade Statistics of the United Kingdom".