HC Deb 15 March 1983 vol 39 cc75-7W
Mr. Nicholas Winterton

asked the Minister for Trade what is the level of future increases in imports that will be

information he has as to the percentage of that country's home market that these sales represented in each of the past five years.

Mr. Sproat

The available information is as follows:

possible (a) under the new multi-fibre arrangements III agreement and (b) under arrangements with low-cost preferential Mediterranean suppliers.

Mr. Sproat

The bilateral agreements negotiated under the MFA contain over 500 quotas, the growth rates for which vary according to product and country. The annual growth allowed on the United Kingdom quotas for group I products will on average be less than 1 per cent. Precise United Kingdom growth rates are not yet available for group II and group III products. However, for the Community as a whole, annual growth rates in group II lie between 1.4 per cent. and 4.3 per cent.; and in group III between 2.7 per cent. and 6 per cent.

The agreements with the preferential low-cost Mediterranean suppliers vary in their length and their coverage. In a number of cases restraint levels for 1983 are still being finalised, and very few levels have yet been set fr 1984. It is therefore not possible at present to give growth rates corresponding to the figures quoted for the MFA agreements.