HC Deb 14 January 1981 vol 996 cc527-8W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Prime Minister, further to her reply dated 13 November 1980 to a written question from the hon. Member for Grimsby concerning the refund expected from the EEC budget— Official Report, 13 November, col. 399—whether she will publish in the Official Report an estimate comparing the refund with the estimated value of the resources transferred from food consumers to food producers in (a)the United Kingdom, and (b) other EEC countries.

The Prime Minister

No. As I said in my earlier reply, it would not be meaningful to compare the redressing of a resource loss with transfers within the economies of individual member States. In any case the measurement of transfers between producers and consumers would involve highly speculative assumptions about the level of world prices for foodstuffs in the absence of support for agricultural production in the Community.