HC Deb 13 December 1979 vol 975 cc733-4W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Secretary of State for Trade whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the United Kingdom share of exports of manufacturers to (a) EEC countries and (b) non-EEC countries for 1970 to 1978.

Mr. Parkinson

The United Kingdom share of exports of manufactured goods is normally measured in terms of our share of the value of main manufacturing Prices of manufactures is available for this period only for the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The information requestion for these two countries is as follows:

Countries' exports of manufactured goods. Annual information, using this definition, is as follows:

UNITED KINGDOM SHARE OF MAIN MANUFACTURING COUNTRIES* EXPORTS OF MANUFACTURED GOODS†
To EEC countries Percentages To non-EEC countries
1970 8.1 12.0
1971 8.4 12.4
1972 7.7 11.4
1973 7.5 10.6
1974 7.7 9.3
1975 8.1 9.9
1976 8.2 9.0
1977 9.0 9.4
1978‡ 8.9 9.8
*The main manufacturing countries are taken as United Kingdom, Belgium/Luxembourg. France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United States of America, Canada and Japan. Together these countries account for about three-quarters of world exports of manufactured goods.
†SITC (R) Sections 5 to 8.
‡SITC (R2) Sections 5 to 8.
Source: OECD Trade Series B except 1978 data for United States of America taken from Highlights of United States Export and Import Trade.