§ Mr. Maxwell-Hyslopasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether Her Majesty's Government are taking action to secure wine quotas which will ensure that excess wine production in the European Economic Community is brought into line with demand for wine no more slowly than is excess milk production; and if he will estimate the cost to European Economic Community funds of failure to take such action in 1984.
§ Mrs. FennerThe Government fully accept the need to bring the wine surplus under control, although quotas may not necessarily be the most appropriate means of doing this. At Her Majesty's Government's instigation, provision was made in the wine regime for obligatory distillation of wine at low prices to clear surpluses at the 203W beginning of the season. At the last Council the United Kingdom pressed the Commission to investigate urgently the reason for the serious under-declaration of the 1983–84 harvest which led to the failure to implement obligatory distillation this year. We will continue to press for this and other cost-effective measures to replace the surplus.