§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement outlining the main differences in the basis of calculation of overseas trade statistics since 20 April 1982, when the deficit in manufactured trade with the European Economic Community for 1979 was published as £3,081 million, and 14 March when the deficit for the same year was recorded as £2,554 million in the Official Report, column 159; and if he will provide an estimate of the deficit for 1983 under the previous system and under the new system.
§ Mr. ChannonThe figure quoted in April 1982 was on the overseas trade statistics basis, while that contained in the reply of the 14 March was on the balance of payments basis. The main difference between these is that the OTS figure for imports includes insurance and freight costs while those for exports do not, so that imports are overvalued by comparison with exports. On the BoP basis both imports and exports are valued excluding these costs which are properly part of the invisibles account. BoP492W figures for trade in commodities with the European Community countries have only been estimated in the last year or so and are quoted whenever possible as they provide a fairer comparison between exports and imports. For 1983 the crude balance-that is, on the OTS basis—was—£7.9 billion while on the BoP basis the balance was -£7.1 billion.