§ Lord Brougham and Vauxasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has been made towards setting up a quality wine scheme for English and Welsh wine producers under European Community rules?
§ Baroness TrumpingtonDuring the recent price-fixing round in Brussels, the following formal Council statement was secured:
"In the context of wine sector reform the Commission will study the possibilities of including interspecific varieties in the list of varieties deemed suitable for production of quality wine per specified region".
We expect English and Welsh wine producers to welcome this, as interspecific varieties of vines (or "hybrids") emerged as their predominant concern during a recent consultation exercise on quality wine.
30WA
UK trade with other EC member slates (£ million) Food, feed and drink1 Whisky2 Imports Exports 3 Crude balance Imports Exports 3 Crude balance 1988 6,271 2,855 —3,866 7 467 +460 1989 7,435 3,326 —4,109 8 542 + 534 19904 8,030 3,631 —4,399 11 631 +620 1 Divisions 01 to 11, 22 and 41 to 43 of the Standard International Trade Classification (Rev.3). 2 In addition to Scotch whisky, "whisky" (SITC 112.41) includes small quantities of Northern Irish whiskey, Bourbon and immature plain cereal spirits. 3 Strict balance of payments estimates are not available for trade in specific commodities nor in respect of particular geographic regions. This is because the basis for the valuation of imports is CIF (including the costs of carriage, insurance and freight) while that for exports is FOB (free on board). The crude balance will tend to overstate slightly negative balances and vice versa. 4 Provisional. Clearly we now have a commitment to follow this point up firmly in subsequent Brussels discussion, which may take some time. Meanwhile, however, we have decided to launch a pilot quality wine scheme for operation as from the 1991 vintage this autumn, with a view to full operation as of the 1992 vintage.