HC Deb 17 December 1946 vol 431 c340W
78. Mr. Hollis

asked the President of the Board of Trade the reason for the reduction this year in imports of manufactured tobacco from the British Empire as compared with 1938 and the increase of such imports from the U.S.A.

Mr. Marquand

The figures of imports of manufactured tobacco show the opposite position to what is suggested in the hon. Member's Question. Manufactured tobacco, however, forms an insignificant part of our tobacco imports and the hon. Member may have had in mind the much more important matter of unmanufactured tobacco Total imports of unmanufactured tobacco from Empire sources have been lower this year than in 1938 owing principally to reductions, due to increased domestic demand and to diversion of acreage to food production, in the quantities available for export from Canada and India