§ Mr. ÖpikTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give a breakdown of the country of origin of beef imports in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [20256]
§ Mr. RookerUK beef imports for the period September 1996 to August 1997 as recorded in the Overseas Trade Statistics are shown in the table. For trade within the European Community, it is not possible to give a breakdown by country of origin. Instead data are shown by the country from which the goods were despatched.
there is therefore no basis on which we could apply standards to imports which we did not regard as necessary for our domestic production.