HC Deb 27 November 1968 vol 774 c134W
Mr. Marten

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will set out in the OFFICIAL REPORT the detailed basis on which the estimate was made in May, 1967, of the net cost to Great Britain's balance of payments between £175 and £250 million a year for the various contributions to the Guidance and Guarantee Fund of the European Community in the event of Great Britain joining.

Mr. Cledwyn Hughes

The estimate in paragraph 89 of Cmnd. 3274 ("The Common Agricultural Policy of the European Economic Community", May, 1967) related not to the net cost of contributions to the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund alone but to the net cost to the United Kingdom balance of payments of applying the E.E.C.s agricultural arrangements as they then stood. The assumptions on which the estimate was based were explained in paragraphs 87–88.