§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list in percentage change order the 50 classifications of manufactured goods which have shown greatest import growth since 1979 and the balance of trade deficit of surplus n each since then. [35409.]
§ Mr. Nelson[Holding answer 18 July 1995]: The available information is given in the table.
1572W
United Kingdom Trade £ million, current prices Classification Imports percentage change 1979–94 Crude balance1994 Medical and pharmaceutical products 898 1,697 Office machines and ADP machines 702 -1,162 Electrical machinery, apparatus and appliance nes 648 -690 Essential oils and resinoids and perfume materials 586 790
United Kingdom Trade £.million, current prices Classification Imports percentage change 1979–94 Crude balance 1994 Telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing equipment 531 -211 Prefabricated buildings; plumbing, heating and lighting fixtures and fitting 470 -162 Miscellaneous manufactured articles nes 449 -803 Dying tanning, and colouring materials 383 664 Rubber manufactures nes 381 -68 Power generating machinery and equipment 366 2,133 Professional, scientific and controlling instruments nes 364 709 Furniture and parts thereof 347 -428 Plastics 347 -938 Travel goods, handbags and similar containers 326 -279 Footwear 311 -973 Road vehicles (including air-cushion vehicles) 310 -6,774 Articles of apparel and clothing accessories 307 -2,179 General industrial machinery and machine parts nes 295 209 Manufactures of metal nes 273 -243 Chemical materials and products nes 253 1,061 Organic chemicals 244 1,207 Paper, paperboard and articles of paper pulp, of paper or of paperboard 240 -2,233 Fertilisers (other than those of group 272) 236 -238 Photographic and optical equipment; watches and clocks 230 -272 Other transport equipment 205 412 Machinery specialised for particular industries 184 1,018 Textile yarn, fabrics, made-up articles nes and related products 166 -1,570 Iron and steel 141 739 Inorganic chemicals 141 36 Cork and wood manufactures (excluding furniture) 122 -863 Non-ferrous metals 94 -793 Metalworking machinery 80 61 Non-metallic mineral manufactures nes 36 163 Leather, leather manufactures nes and dressed furskins 20 102