§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his reply of 21 October, why information op the cost of export rebates paid in respect of food and wine exports by the EEC to the Eastern bloc are not readily available; and whether the EEC Commission keeps any central record of these export rebates.
§ Mr. Buchanan-Smith:The Commission keep records of the total costs of export refunds. However, those data are not broken down to show the expenditure on exports to any one country or group of countries. Information supplied by the Commission in reply to a question from my hon. Friend on 7 April—[Vol. 21, c. 341–421]—represented an estimate only of the cost of refunds for exports to the Soviet Union from the Community—excluding the United Kingdom—for a short specified period. Equivalent estimates for the period 1976–80 for total Community exports to the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc respectively could not be obtained except at an unacceptable administrative cost.