§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Minister for Trade (1) if he will publish a table showing the number of tons of steel which the United Kingdom exported to the United States of America in each of the past 10 years;
(2) if he will publish a table showing the number of tons of steel which the European Economic Community exported to the United States of America in each of the past 10 years.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 29 July 1982]: Information as is available is as follows:
Exports of steel products to United States of America Thousand tones From EC(10) Of which from United Kingdom 1972 6,895 1,086 1973 5,702 917 1974 5,875 547 1975 3,218 475 1976 3,044 457 1977 6,753 787 1978 6,387 534 1979 5,090 384 1980 3,409 215 1981 not available—see Note 4 Notes:
1. Figures, which are on a comparable basis, are given according to the United Nations definition in "Statistics of World Trade in Steel".
2. EC figures for 1972 to 1974 exclude Ireland, but any amounts involved are likely to be extremely small.
3. Figures for 1980 were affected by the dispute in the United Kingdom steel industry.
4. The availability of the detailed United Kingdom export figures for 1981 has been affected by the Civil Service dispute. Figures which are readily available, although on a slightly different basis from those given above, show that United Kingdom exports of steel industry products in the six months, January, February, September to December of 1981 were 276 thousand tonnes, compared with 214 thousand tonnes in the whole of 1980. In respect of EC trade in steel products with the United States of America in the year 1981, OECD sources suggest an increase of around 65 per cent., on 1980, in United States of America imports from the Community.