§ 49. Mr. Bullardasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether the talks with the Argentine Government over beef imports have yet 59W taken place; and when he expects to make an announcement about their outcome.
§ 52. Sir A. Hurdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if arrangements have now been made to steady the beef market by the limitation of Argentine and Yugoslavian shipments to balance the increasing supplies of home-fed beef available from now on-wards; and what estimate he has made of the level of supplies from the main sources for the rest of this year compared with 1962.
§ 57. Mr. H. Clarkasked the Minister of of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he will make a statement on the future level of meat imports, following his recent discussions with the Argentine authorities.
§ Mr. SoamesFollowing our talks with the Argentine and Yugoslav Governments, I have received satisfactory assurances from them about their exports of beef to us for the remainder of 1963.
The Yugoslav Government have indicated that they do not expect their exports to us in 1963 to exceed 30,000 tons, or 25 per cent. less than last year.
The Argentine Government have agreed that their beef exports in 1963 will not exceed 203,500 tons. Since in the first quarter of this year they sent 76,000 tons, the rate for the rest of the year will be considerably lower. Taking into account these assurances, I estimate that beef imports in the last nine months of this year will be lower than in the corresponding period of 1962.