§ Mr. Freudasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what has been the annual cost of African, Caribbean and Pacific imports since 1974–75 to the British Sugar Corporation and to British taxpayers respectively.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThere are no direct costs either to the British Sugar Corporation or to the United Kingdom Exchequer of imports into the United Kingdom of African, Caribbean and Pacific sugar, although the cost of the monetary compensatory amounts paid on this sugar falls on the Community budget to which the United Kingdom contributes its share. The annual values of the monetary
Quantity:'000 tonnes Value: £ '000 ACP DOM EEC (other) Quantity Value Quantity Value Quantity Value 1975 … … 1,188 290,710 — — 105 20,185 1976 … … 1,215 221,480 19 4,354 77 14,275 1977 … … 1,243 244,286 85 19,490 106 21,038 1978 … … 1,270 289,057 37 9,270 37 7,589 1979 (January to October) … … 934 208,869 20 4,980 0.3 85 The figures for the value of sugar exclude duties, levies, and so on, but include costs of insurance and freight and are not therefore balance of payments costs. I regret that balance of payments costs are not available for individual food commodities but only on an aggregate basis for all food, beverages and tobacco.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what has been the cost of monetary compensatory amounts paid to African Caribbean and Pacific countries annually since 1975.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithInformation on the value of monetary compensatory amounts paid toACP countries is not separately recorded. However, the values of monetary compensatory amounts paid on white and raw sugar imported into the United Kingdom from non-Community countries are as follows. Most of these MCAs can be attributed to imports from ACP countries under the sugar protocol to the Lome convention.
56Wcompensatory amounts paid on imports of sugar to the United Kingdom from all non-Community sources including ACP countries are given in answer to another question today by the hon. Member.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish in the Official Report the tonnage of raw sugar imports into the United Kingdom in each year from 1975 from (a) the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, (b) Dominions Outre Mer and (c) other EEC countries and the cost to the balance of payments of these.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe quantity and value of raw sugar imports into the United Kingdom from these three sources are published in the "Overseas Trade Statistics" of the United Kingdom and for the years requested are as follows:
1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 £ £ £ 580 17,830,707 56,229,563 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80* £ £ £ 77,333,552 68,213,091 17,137,173 * 1 April to 31 October