asked the Secretary of State for Trade whether, in any reexamination of the duty-free quotas applying to imports of Nordic products in the paper and board industry, he will seek to ensure that producers in the original six EEC member countries have no greater degree of protection against Nordic competition than producers in the United Kingdom.

United Kingdom rates of duty on these supplies were aligned with the descending transitional Community rates on 1 July 1977 and they will enter the Community duty free by 1984. But in the transitional period the relevant EEC-EFTA agreements additionally committed the United Kingdom to provide duty-free quotas for the bulk of the trade in the products concerned. There are good reasons for this obligation which had regard to the interests of user industries and to the importance of the United Kingdom's exports to these countries, which have continued to afford us free trade.