HC Deb 10 December 1948 vol 459 c87W
Mr. Lennox-Boyd

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT a list of the preferences that have been eliminated as a result of the agreements reached at Geneva and Havana.

Mr. H. Wilson

I assume that the hon. Member is referring to preferences granted by Commonwealth countries. Details of the previous rates and the rates agreed upon as a result of the Geneva negotiations were published in various issues of the Board of Trade Journal, particulars of which I am sending the hon. Member. I am also sending him details of the tariff items in respect of which margins of preferences were eliminated. As I informed the House during the debate on the Geneva Tariff Agreement on the 29th January last, the total trade covered by the elimination of these preferences is only about 2½ per cent. The final act of the Havana Conference which established the text of a Charter for an International Trade Organisation did not itself involve any change in preference rates.