§ Mr. Edelmanasked the Secretary of State for Industry what action he is taking to obtain information about the merchanting of foreign supplies by British machine tool makers; and whether he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. MeacherWe are not convinced that we would be justified in imposing this additional requirement on machine tool makers. Merchanting of all kinds of goods, of both British and foreign origin, by manufacturers of machine tools in 1973 at £18.7 million was less than 7 per cent. of their total sales by value. This compares with total imports of machine tools in 1973 valued at £67.6 million.