§ Lord O'HAGANasked Her Majesty's Government:
How the European Commission's proposals for the co-responsibility levy for dairy farmers will affect British-dairy farming and the British consumer; how many farmers will be exempt from the levy in each member State of the EEC; and to what extent the level of exemption discriminates against efficient British dairy farmers.
§ Lord STRABOLGIIt is not possible at this stage to say precisely what effect the co-responsibility levy would have, but the arrangement proposed would clearly reduce significantly the average net margins of milk producers in the United Kingdom. The levy should not have any direct effect on prices, but its overall impact would depend upon the extent to which it was used to subsidise disposals of milk and milk products.
Separate information for each member State is not available, but the Commission are understood to have estimated that their proposals would exempt some 30 per cent. of milk producers in the EEC as a whole. The equivalent figure for the United Kingdom is likely to be about 10 per cent. The proposed exemptions would therefore discriminate against larger milk produces in this country.
House adjourned at twenty-two minutes before ten o'clock.