§ 18. Mr. Shepherdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the present disparity between the United Kingdom green pound rate and the Republic of Ireland's green pound rate.
§ 26. Mr. Hal Millerasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the present disparity between the United Kingdom green pound rate and the Republic of Ireland's green pound rate.
§ 44. Mr. Peter Millsasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the present disparity between the United Kingdom green pound rate and the Republic of Ireland's green pound rate.
§ Mr. John SilkinThe United Kingdom representative rate or green pound is £1 =1.75560 units of account and the Irish representative rate is £1=1.44212 units of account. This is a difference of 22 per cent.
§ 34. Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the present disparity between the green and market rate of the £ sterling.
§ Mr. John SilkinThe monetary compensatory amount percentage is now 33.6 based on a gap between the representative rate and the market rate used for this purpose of 35.1.
§ 43. Mr. Buchanasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food at what level prices of farm products from Germany are being supported by EEC funds; to whom and by what methods such funds are made available to Germany by the EEC; and whether United Kingdom taxpayers contribute to these costs in any way.
§ Mr. BishopI assume that my hon. Friend is referring to the cost of the green currency and monetary compensatory amount (MCA) system as it applies to Germany.
The green rate for the German mark is now undervalued by 10¼ per cent. compared with the market rate for the mark used for MCA purposes. German 358W MCAs are, therefore, collected from importers and paid to exporters by the appropriate agency of the German Government. Since Germany imports more goods covered by the MCA arrangements than it exports, the subsidies paid on exports are in effect financed by the charges on imports. The most recent Commission figures available to us suggest that the net gain to Community funds arising from the current German MCA would amount on an annual basis to about 18 million units of account.
Since the green D-mark is undervalued, Community support prices in real terms are higher in Germany than in other member States. No estimate is, however, available to the extent to which the effect of this on German production and consumption increases the total cost of the common agricultural policy.