§ Sir Anthony Meyerasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proportion of Community gross domestic product in 1981 was accounted for by (a) expenditure under the common agricultural policy and (b) national agricultural support measures; and how this combined total compares with the proportion of gross domestic product devoted to Government support for agriculture in the United States of America, Canada, Japan, Argentina and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithOn(a), final figures are not yet available but on the basis of Commission estimates expenditure under the common agricultural policy in 1981 was around 0.56 per cent. of Community gross domestic product.
As to the rest of my hon. Friend's question, reliable information on national agricultural expenditure in the Community and in other countries is difficult to obtain and I regret that I do not have the information for 1981 requested. For an estimate by the Commission of recent comparable expenditure in the United States and Japan I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave him on 12 March 1981.—[Vol. 1000, c. 424.]