HC Deb 11 December 1990 vol 182 cc384-5W
Mr. Leighton

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the reasons which lay behind the introduction of monetary compensatory amounts.

Mr. Curry

Monetary compensatory amounts were introduced in 1969 when it was agreed that changes in exchange rates should not immediately apply to the exchange rates used to convert common agricultural support prices into national currencies; they were intended to enable trade between member states to continue at common price levels and so prevent the distortions of trade that use of differing exchange rates would have encouraged.