§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will bring up to date for the whole or part of 1986 the information on duties and levies on foodstuffs provided in his written answer to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby on 7 March 1984, Official Report, column 582.
§ Mr. BrookeI have been asked to reply.
Figures for the whole of 1986 are not yet available. The table shows, for the first 10 months of 1986, the duties and levies on imports of food and live animals chiefly for food — Standard International Trade Classification (Rev 2) Section 0 — from countries for which no preferential duty rates apply:
January to October 1986 £ million Customs duty 43.1 Agricultural levy 125.5 Total charges 168.6 percentage Total charges as a proportion of the value of the goods subject to duty and/or levy 20.8 The basis on which the proportion shown in the table has been calculated differs from that used for the 1983 data in the earlier written answer to which the hon. Member refers. This is because no information on the value of imports subject only to levy was then, or is now, readily available, and the charges were calculated as a percentage only of the value of goods charged with customs duties. I am sorry that this was not made clear at the time.