§ Mr. Spearingasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will set out in the Official Report the mechanism and conclusions he referred to in reply to the hon. Member for Southampton, Test (Mr. Gould) on 16th February together with his estimate of the overvaluation of the EEC agricultural unit of account.
§ Mr. BishopMonetary compensatory amounts are now determined by reference to the Community currencies in the European Joint Float. I think that my hon. Friend wishes to know what would be the result if instead they were determined by reference to the European unit of account. The European unit of account is a basket unit in which the currencies of all the Member States of the European Community are represented.
The exchange rate used for determining this week's sterling monetary compensatory amount is £1=1.28912 units of account. The equivalent sterling EUA exchange rate is £1=1.52889 European units of account. If the European unit of account were used in the calculation of monetary compensatory amounts, there would be changes in the current monetary compensatory amounts, unless the numerical value of common prices was adjusted to take account of the change in system. Furthermore, those countries which, because they are members of the joint float, now have fixed monetary compensatory amounts, would have variable monetary compensatory amounts.