/17
concerned at the same time that the normal full monthly detail
of import statistics was being extractoā.
These returns
would not, howover, normally be available until towards the
end of the following month so that the full rate of duty would
not be reimposed for a period of between one and two months
from the date the quota ceiling was reached. Further study
by the Board of Trade in consultation with Customs needs
therefore to be given to the possibility of getting an carlier
warning through the normal machinery for processing import
statistics, but the only other alternative would seem to be
for an extra copy of the entry forms to be sent to a special
section in the Board of Trade to be set up, to record them
manually against the relevant duty quota as they wore received.
There is also the problem to be considered of how the necessary
legislative authority could be obtained for duty quotas.
Processed Agricultural Products
26. Here all the offers are in the form of a positive list of
items on which straigh-forward cuts, not limited by duty quotas,
might be granted. As already mentioned, no proper comparison
of offers can be made because, apart from other deficiencies
in the lists, no country has provided figures of its total
imports and total dutiable imports from beneficiary countries
in this sector. Nevertheless it is clear that all the other
countries' offers are much less generous than that of the U.K.
Not only is the value of imports covered EEC 19 million,
Nordics 63 million (including primary products), Switzerland
10 million and Canada % 3.5 million, at much below the U.K.
offer of % 119 million but in most cases the depth of cut
is much smaller.
Cat
/27