§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what action he has taken with respect to the representations he has received from the newspaper proprietors with regard to his proposal to restrict imports of Canadian newsprint into the United Kingdom;
(2) whether it remains his intention to limit Canadian imports of newsprint into the United Kingdom to 500,000 tonnes per annum without attracting surcharge.
§ Mr. ChannonFor 1984 the European Community has opened a duty-free tariff quota for 500,000 tonnes of newsprint and from this the United Kingdom has received an allocation of 331,400 tonnes. However, these amounts will not be adequate for the year as a whole and the Community is therefore currently considering a proposal for a supplement to the quota. The Government fully accept the need of the United Kingdom publishers for continued access to duty-free newsprint and have been pressing hard for agreement on a supplementary quota. I raised this matter at the Foreign Affairs Council on 19 June and will be pressing for a decision at the July meeting of the Council.