§ Mr. Patrick Thompsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much progress has been made with the Customs and Excise review of product headings on trade statistics and in particular statistics relating to machine tools.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe inter-departmental revising committee met as scheduled on 12 June 1984 to consider seventeen requests for revision of the commodity classification for United Kingdom overseas trade statistics. Applicants will be informed of the committee's decisions shortly. The proposals which were adopted will be introduced into the Her Majesty's Customs and Excise tariff and overseas classification with effect from 1 January 1985.
A further proposal concerning fragmentation of the statistical headings for certain machine tools had to be deferred pending further information on these products. The revising committee will reconvene to consider these proposals if they can be clarified and simplified before 31 July 1984 and has asked Customs and Excise to write again to the applicant.