§ Mr. SteenTo ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 30 April,Official Report, column 471, if he will list (a) the United Kingdom businesses action single market has helped, (b) the single market trade barriers he has helped them to overcome and (c) the number and location of the wider network of staff who work in British embassies overseas assessing and pursuing complaints. [35033]
§ Mr. Oppenheim[holding answer 1 July 1996]: Action single market has helped UK businesses overcome a wide range of problems. These include: homologation (type approval) procedures in Spain; Dutch insistence on retesting of electric fencing; Irish regulations on the labelling of canned fruit; delays in securing German type approval for road cones; Spanish regulations on sizes of cider bottles; a Belgian refusal to accept a British fire certificate for carpets; Greek rules on the fruit juice content of soft drinks; Belgian customs officials asking for inappropriate documentation; Italian failure to implement an EU directive concerned with paints; a Danish levy on imported goods; and Greek restrictions on electronic cash registers.
Company details are passed to action single market on a commercially confidential basis, and cannot be divulged unless specific permission has been given. Some companies that action single market has helped have given permission for their details to appear in recent Government publications. These include H P Bulmer Ltd. Swintex Ltd. Del Monte Foods International Ltd. and Rutland Electric Fencing Co. Ltd.
382WAction single market has contacts who assist in assessing and pursuing complaints, in British embassies covering all the other member states of the EU and the rest of the European Economic Area and in some of the consulates-general in those countries.