§ Sir W. Bromley-Davenportasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food why he estimates that the price of butter will be doubled if Great Britain enters the Common Market; whether he is aware that French and Dutch butter is today widely on sale in Great Britain at prices approximately equivalent to English butter; and what evidence has been submitted to him that French and Dutch butter is dumped here and sold at prices half that in Holland and France.
§ Mr. HoyThe market price for butter in the United Kingdom is determined basically by substantial supplies from low-cost producers such as New Zealand; and it is common knowledge that many countries, including France and the Netherlands, pay export subsidies to facilitate sales in the U.K. at competitive prices. It was for this reason that in 67W 1962 butter quota arrangements were introduced, at the request of the major traditional suppliers, in order to protect their interests. Under these arrangements butter is at present obtainable in this country at 300s. per cwt. Under E.E.C. arrangements as they stand at present, wholesale butter prices throughout the Community would be sustained by support buying—at an intervention price, for 1968–69, of 640s. per cwt.—and by a minimum import price of 694s. for imports from third countries.