§ Mr. Deakinsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, in the negotiations for the entry of the United Kingdom into the European Economic Community, he will seek to ensure that coffee produced in the Commonwealth will not be subject to levies or duties in gaining access to the United Kingdom market.
§ Mr. RipponYes. If we join the Communities imports of coffee will not be subject to levies. As regards duties on coffee under the Common External Tariff of the Communities, we are, as stated by the last Government in the White Paper "The United Kingdom and the European Communities" (Cmnd. 3345), seeking the revival of the provisional agreement reached in 1961–63 that association under what was later negotiated as the Yaoundé Convention should be open to independent Commonwealth countries in Africa and the Caribbean.
The terms of the Yaoundé Convention provide for duty-free entry of coffee into the Communities.
§ Mr. Deakinsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, in the negotiations for the entry of the United Kingdom into the European Economic Community, he will seek to ensure that tea produced in the Commonwealth will not be subject to levies or duties in gaining access to the United Kingdom market.
§ Mr. RipponYes. If we join the Communities imports of tea into the United Kingdom will not be subject to levies. The Common External Tariff 277W of the Communities on tea in packets of 3 kg. and above is suspended at nil.
§ Mr. Martenasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish the proposals submitted to the Common Market for the solution of the problems of the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement and New Zealand.
§ Mr. RipponThe proposals submitted to the conference with the European Communities are confidential negotiating documents. It would not be appropriate for me to publish them.
§ Mr. Sillarsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has received from the Church of Scotland about Great Britain's entry to the European Economic Community.
§ Mr. RipponIn August I replied to a letter from the Principal Clerk of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland drawing my attention to the May report of the Church and Nation Committee to the General Assembly which included a section on the negotiations with the European Communities. My Department also commented in late October, at the request of the Vice-Convenor of the Church and Nation Committee, on the factual content of the report submitted by this Committee to the General Assembly earlier that month. I have received no other communication from the Church of Scotland, about entry into the European Communities.