HC Deb 13 October 1976 vol 917 cc122-3W
Mr. Hooley

asked the Minister for Overseas Development what steps are being taken to improve consultation between the EEC and ACP countries in respect of the implementation of the Lomé Convention.

Mr. Prentice

The Lomé Convention itself made detailed provision for consultation between the EEC and ACP countries and set up for the purpose a Joint Council of Ministers, a Committee of Ambassadors and a Consultative Assembly, in each of which both groups of countries are represented. Last June the member States of the Community took a number of detailed decisions as proposed by the European Commission laying down procedures for informing the ACP States of proposals or recommendations and for applying the procedures for consultation under the Lomé Convention. I hope that when these new procedures are put fully in operation, whatever defects may have emerged in the arrangements will have been corrected. It has also been agreed that, in order to follow up various points raised at the first meeting of the Joint Council of Ministers, the President of the EEC Council of Ministers will meet the President of the ACP Ministers in November.

Mr. Hooley

asked the Minister for Overseas Development if he will publish details of the aid programme under the Lomé Convention under which 3,000 million units of account have been allocated up to March 1980, showing which ACP countries will benefit, and by how much, and giving allocations in sterling.

Mr. Prentice

The Lomé Convention provides for the aid to be programmed in conjunction with each recipient State in such a way that each recipient can obtain as clear an idea as possible of the amount of aid that it can expect to receive

Recipient ACP State Product £
Benin Groundnuts 309,553
Coffee 783,255
Cotton 2,866,370
Oilcake 794,052
Burundi Cotton 643,734
Raw hides 346,702
Cameroon Wood in the rough 2,400,948
Central African Republic Coffee 235,405
Congo Wood in the rough 4,907,784
Ivory Coast Wood in the rough 10,000,000
Ethiopia Coffee 6,226,455
Raw hides 3,386,909
Fiji Copra oil 410,273
Ghana Wood in the rough 3,450,938
Upper Volta Groundnuts 456,826
Cotton 117,290
Niger Groundnuts 3,627,529
Raw hides 338,498
Somalia Fresh bananas 864,604
Raw hides 423,492
Sudan Rawhides 1,105,719
Tanzania Cotton 1,258,054
Togo Coffee 1,786,882
Uganda Cotton 1,165,954
Western Samoa Cocoa 184,652