§ Mr. Cryerasked the Minister for Trade if he will make a statement on the current negotiations on the multi-fibre arrangement.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 21 October 1982, c. 171]: The commission has initialled new bilateral agreements under the multi-fibre arrangement with 18 supplying countries. These are Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Romania, Sri Lanka, Czechoslovakia, Thailand, Uruguay and Yugoslavia. Negotiations with a further nine countries—Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore—were suspended at the end of September whilst the commission reported to the Council of Ministers. This report, which has been received, proposes, inter alia, a further round of negotiations to try to conclude the remaining nine agreements within the existing mandate. The report will be discussed by the Council of Ministers in Luxembourg on 25–26 October.