§ Mr. Farrasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether the trade balance of the United Kingdom motor industry is indicating a surplus or deficit so far as figures for 1983 are available.
§ Mr. Channon[pursuant to the reply, 11 July 1983, c. 231]: Detailed figures normally published in Business Monitor MQ.10 — overseas trade analysed in terms of industries —are not yet available for 1983, owing to transitional problems resulting from the adoption of the 1980 edition of the standard industrial classification as the basis of the statistics, instead of the 1968 edition. On the more approximate basis indicated in the footnote below, the crude deficit in overseas trade—exports valued f.o.b. minus imports valued c.i.f. — in the first five months of the year was £1,177 million.
Source: United Kingdom Overseas Trade Statistics, SITC (R2) Groups 781–784 and Items 786.11–13.