§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will circulate a table in the Official Report showing the United Kingdom share of world trade in manufactures each year since 1970 and the estimated share in 1980 to date and the relative export prices each year since 1970 with the estimated share in 1980 to date.
§ Mr. TebbitInformation on the United Kingdom value share of world trade in
136Wcountries to countries other than the United Kingdom or generally.
§ Mr. EyreInformation on unit values for trade in passenger motor cars for 1979 is as follows:
manufactures for 1970 to 1979 is given in table El of the October 1980 issue of Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics. Latest estimates suggest that in the first half of this year the share was about 10 per cent. The available information on relative export prices is given in table F3 of the same issue of the Monthly Review.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Trade what is the average time taken to ship manufactured goods, at the time recorded in the trade returns, from the time the order was originally booked, either generally or by particular categories.
§ Mr. TebbitAn answer to the question as written is not available. However, the average length of export order books for the engineering sector can be obtained from Business Monitors PM 33–36 and PQ 33–36. This statistic is an indicator of the average time between the recording of an order by a firm and the passage of the goods through the factory gate. It is believed that the lag between the latter event and the recording of their export in theOverseas Trade Statistics is generally much shorter.
The average length of export order books for the combined engineering sector—SIC Orders VII, VIII and IX—was eight months at the end of June 1980.