carried out in four stages, starting a year after accession. The table below shows how these arrangements would work out if we join the Community on 1 January 1973:
TABLE 1
April 1, 1973 January 1, 1974 January 1, 1975
Abolition of tariffs between the Six and the United Kingdom
(per cent)
Cumulative reduction
the CET by
(per cent)
the United Kingdom (per cent)
Adoption of
Cumulative movement towards adoption of the CET (per cent)
20
20
20
40
20
60
...
January 1, 1976... July 1, 1977
20
80
20
100
9222
40
40
20
60
20
80
20
100
80. These arrangements have two substantial advantages for us. In the first place they will ensure that within three years of entry (when the Community's tariffs will have been cut by 80 per cent) our exporters will have virtually duty-free access to the large and rapidly growing market of the Six. The opportunities will be considerable. The CET is not on average high, but tariff averages can be misleading; in several sectors of importance to British industry the barriers we face are still substantial- 22 per cent on commercial vehicles, up to 18 per cent on organic chemicals, 16-18 per cent on plastics, 18 per cent on tractors and 14 per cent on diesel engines. In the second place, the delay of a year before our first move to the CET should usefully lengthen the period of adjustment for our Commonwealth partners.
4)
AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION
81. Under the common agricultural policy the level of market prices for the main agricultural commodities is maintained in two ways. The price of imports is kept up to a minimum or threshold price by means of variable import levies; and the internal market is supported at an intervention price, slightly below the threshold price, at which any surpluses are bought by the Community's agricultural fund. These arrangements apply to cereals, milk products, beef and veal, pigmeat and sugar and (except for support buying) to poultry and eggs, though they vary in detail for each commodity. The agricultural fund also compensates Community exporters when their sales to third countries are made at prices below Community levels.
82. We shall adopt this Community system of support-though not Community prices in the first year of membership. We shall introduce threshold and intervention prices of our own. These will be lower than the full Community threshold and intervention prices-the difference corresponding to the difference between our market price levels and those of the present members. We shall then increase our threshold and intervention prices gradually to full Community levels by six steps over the five years of the transitional period. These will be equal steps, subject to a 10 per cent tolerance up or down if needed in the interests of flexibility. As market prices are increased, British farmers will increasingly get their returns from the market, and deficiency payments will be phased out.
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