§ Mr. YeoTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the decision by the European Commission to decrease the export refunds for hatching eggs. [126821]
§ Mr. Nick Brown[holding answer 19 June 2000]: The small change to the export refund for hatching eggs introduced in May was in response to a reduction in the euro/dollar exchange rate. To ignore such currency movements when considering export subsidies would be a breach of WTO requirements and would not represent effective use of EU funds.