§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Trade what progress 617W to reduce tariffs with the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Brazil and Korea has so far been made in the current General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade multilateral trade negotiations.
§ Mr. Meacher, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 13 February 1979; Vol. 961, c. 494–5], gave the following information:
The United States, Australia, Canada and Japan have all made offers based on a tariff harmonising formula designed to give average cuts of 40 per cent. They are making exceptions for particularly sensitive products, and taking account of these the outcome in each case is likely to be about 25 to 30 per cent. South Korea has offered a cut of approximately equal value. The South African and Brazilian offers are at present considerably smaller. The precise details of the negotiations, which are continuing are confidential.