§ 61. Sir C. Osborneasked the President of the Board of Trade if he has considered the information collected by the National Industrial Conference Board of America which has recently estimated comparative costs in the United States of America at 100, United Kingdom at 84, Germany at 85, and the other five members of the Common Market at 105, details of which have been sent to him by the hon. Member for Louth; what calculations he has made of such comparative costs in view of their importance in the context of the United Kingdom's application to join the Common Market; to what extent his calculations agree with these estimates; and if he will give them wide publicity so as to encourage British manufacturers who fear they will not be able to compete in the Common Market.
§ Mr. N. MacphersonMy right hon. Friend was very interested to see the report of these cost comparisons, but he does not think they can be taken as representative of British industry as a whole. Relative costs in different countries vary from product to product and138W firm to firm and there are considerable difficulties in comparing costs of manufacturing similar products.