§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will list by category, the records which her Department maintains on exports over the last 30 years of British(a) agricultural machinery, (b) motor lorries and (c) motor cars. [27018]
§ Mr. BattleInformation on UK exports of goods is collected and published by HM Customs and Excise ("Overseas Trade Statistics of the United Kingdom, HM Customs and Excise"). In 1997 under the combined Nomenclature classification system there were approximately 60 categories of agricultural machinery, 15 categories of motor cars (excluding motor caravans) and 30 categories of lorries. The exact number of categories has varied from year to year as the classification system has been adapted to changes in the range of products. The last major revision to the classification system was 1988.
The Department holds copies of the relevant publications for 1976, but the cost of extracting the data for the relevant categories would be disproportionate. However, the 1997 edition of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders' publication "World Automotive Statistics" helpfully reproduces Customs and Excise data on car, commercial vehicle, and agricultural tractor exports from 1946 to 1996. A copy of this publication is available in the Library.