§ Sir C. Osborneasked the President of the Board of Trade how much fish members of the European Free Trade Associa- 80W tion are permitted to import annually into Great Britain; and in view of the fact that these guaranteed sales continue to cause unemployment and loss of earnings to the Grimsby trawler crews, threatening the owners with bankruptcy, if he will now negotiate to reduce these amounts by 25 per cent., so as to ensure the survival of home producers.
§ Mr. CroslandI am very well aware of the present difficulties faced by Grimsby trawlers. There is no question of guaranteed sales by E.F.T.A. countries. The E.F.T.A. Convention allows Member States to retain their tariff on wet fish and this we have done. When the Convention was negotiated in 1959, however, the then Government agreed to accord tariff-free treatment for frozen fillets on the understanding that total exports of these to the United Kingdom from Norway, Sweden and Denmark would not be increased to more than 24,000 tons a year before 1970. This level has recently been exceeded and I have accordingly made urgent representations to these three Governments requesting an early discussion of the situation.