§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action is being undertaken by the Overseas Development Administration to support and stabilise commodity prices in lower income countries.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydWe participate as part of the European Community in Stabex and Sysmin, schemes under the Lomé convention for compensating African, Caribbean and Pacific countries for loss of commodity export earnings. We also participate in a number of international commodity agreements, the purpose of which is to assist the flow of commodity trade between producer and consumer countries. The overall trend of prices is of course determined by the state of global supply and demand for individual commodities.