To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the current position of the multi-fibre arrangement and bilateral agreements resulting from it.

[holding answer 11 November 1991]: Our latest information is that 27 signatories of the multi-fibre arrangement (MFA) including the Community have accepted or provisionally accepted the protocol extending the MFA until the end of 1992. With the guidance of member states the Commission is now negotiating the necessary extensions to the bilateral agreements with individual exporting countries.