§ Mr. SHORTasked the President of the Board of Trade the total imports, and the value thereof, of plain net, curtain, other sorts of cotton lace, and silk and mixed lace during the period of the application of the Safeguarding of Industries Act to the lace industry, and similar figures for a corresponding period prior thereto?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERThe aggregate value of the imports and re-exports of the descriptions of lace specified in the question which were registered during the five months beginning July, 1924 and 1925, together with the value of the net imports retained in this country, were as follow:
July-November 1924. July-November,1925. £ £ Total imports … 1,139,768 274,305 Re-exports … 892,557 88,971 Net imports retained … 247,211 185,334 The figures of imports and of re-exports include, for the period prior to the imposition of the duty, goods in transit on through bills of lading. Since the imposition of the duty, such transit-goods have been, for the most part, transhipped under bond. It has long been the practice to exclude goods transshipped under bond from the general figures of imports and re-exports. So far as information is available, it appears that transhipments of lace and lace goods under bond in recent months account for the major part of the decreases in recorded imports and re-exports of such goods.