IMPORT DUTIES (EMERGENCY PROVISIONS). (Hansard, 5 September 1939)

§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Captain Crookshank)
I beg to move, That it is expedient
(a)that for the purposes of the making of any order or the approval of any scheme which, under the existing law could be made or approved by the Treasury if recommended or submitted by the Import Duties Advisory Committee, the Treasury should have power during the present emergency to act without any such recommendation or submission and without regard to considerations to which the said Committee are required to have regard in making recommendations or submissions: and that any consequential amendments of the enactments relating to the matters aforesaid should be made; and

(b)that the powers of the Treasury and of the Board of Trade to grant exemptions from customs duties in the case of machinery, instruments and apparatus, iron and steel goods, and goods subject to Section one of the Safeguarding of Industries Act, 1921, should during the present emergency be extended."
Later, I shall ask leave to introduce a Bill founded on this Ways and Means Resolution. The main purpose of the Bill is a comparatively simple one, namely, that during the period of emergency, or for a lesser period, the statutory functions of the Import Duties Advisory Committee shall be suspended, and the power of making an Order or granting a licence or approving any drawback scheme, which the Treasury now has, after having received a recommendation from the Import Duties Advisory Committee, shall be exercised by the Treasury in spite of the fact that there has been no such recommendation. Apart from the suspension of the Advisory Committee the normal procedure under the Import Duties Act will not be altered. Under the Act, the Treasury in making an Order, having received a recommendation, has to consult "the appropriate Department," whether it be the Board of Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture or any other Department concerned. That statutory duty remains unaltered, as does the procedure of laying Orders before this House, whether under the practice 446 that has been in operation for a number of years, by negative Resolution, or, as has been done sometimes by affirmative Resolution, in the case of the necessity to give approval to Orders imposing new or additional duties of Customs. Those are the effects of the first part of the Resolution.
The second part of the Resolution to which I would call attention gives power to the Treasury to act without regard to considerations to which the said committee are required to have regard in making recommendations or submissions. The object of that provision is that when making such Orders, if any, the Treasury will not have to be bound by the necessities which the Statute lays upon the Import Duties Advisory Committee. Under the Import Duties Act, 1932, Section 3, the Advisory Committee are empowered to recommend that additional duty should be charged on goods which "in their opinion" are either articles of luxury or articles of a kind which are being produced or are likely to be produced in the United Kingdom in quantities which are substantial in relation to the United Kingdom consumption. This limiting condition is to be omitted during the period of the emergency, as also is the provision of Section 3 (2) by which it is laid down that in deciding what recommendation, if any, to make for the purposes of this Section, the Committee shall have regard to the advisbility in the national interest of restricting imports into the United Kingdom and the interest generally of trade and industry in the United Kingdom, including those of trades and industries which are consumers of goods as well as those of trades and industries which are producers of goods. Hon. Members will recollect that an elaborate procedure is laid down for this purpose involving many stages. Representations have to be made to the Committee, advertisements by the Committee' of such applications as they receive have to be made and the Committee have to have time to consider the recommendations and take evidence. They then have to decide whether or not to make a recommendation to the Treasury or to suspend action or to reject the application. These proceedings are not suitable in time of war. It may not, for instance, be possible to get all the necessary evidence. Moreover, the particular considerations involved may not be paramount in the 447 national interest. The Import Duties Advisory Committee have existed for the purpose of trying to foster British trade and to develop new industries in this country. That is not the highest objective in time of war, when the chief objective is to get on with the work of being successful in winning the war. For these reasons we have introduced the Bill. It must be left to the Government to take the final decision in these matters rather than to wait until recommendations are received, even from so able a body as the Import Duties Advisory Committee. The question here and now is not so much that of fostering trade and finding employment for people, but far bigger questions are involved with regard to the control of imports and the availability of foreign exchange. These, briefly, are the reasons why we ask leave to introduce the Bill.
In paragraph (b), therefore, the powers of the Treasury and the Board of Trade to grant exemptions from Customs duties in the case of machinery, iron and steel goods and other imports will be made more general, and not subject to certain limiting conditions which it would be difficult, if not impossible, to observe in war time.
Generally speaking, there is no intention of making wide alterations in the Customs duties as they now exist, but if the Committee agree to take the Second Reading of the Bill to-morrow and the subsequent stages on the following day, hon. Members will have an opportunity of seeing what it contains. However, they may take it from me that there is no point in it which I have not covered in my short speech.

§ Mr. A. V. Alexander
I have to thank the Government for having given us some considerable notice of this matter and I have looked at the Bill carefully in the short time available. I should like to say at once that I find nothing in the procedure to which main objection can be taken, nor to the procedure which is to be followed in passing the Bill through its remaining stages. One would like to say what he thinks about the Import Duties Advisory Committee, but this is not the time for such comments. For myself, I feel much safer in the position of what I would call the direct responsibility 448 of Government Departments to the House for procedure as well as for final decision in these cases, and there will be no objection on the part of the various interests concerned being able to get direct to the Treasury in the making of an Order or in the amendment of an Order.
I feel it is incumbent upon us to give this authority to the Government in view of the warning received yesterday of the strictures which may be imposed upon us in regard to shipping space. It must, obviously, be in the mind of the President of the Board of Trade that many things which we wish to restrict by taxation ought to be allowed to come in freely. I think there can be no opposition to the procedure. The Financial Resolution also gives the Government power to extend certain of its functions in dealing with specific commodities, and I should like to have an assurance that the Government are, in the case of supplies of foods which are absolutely essential, going to take powers immediately to vary the present restrictions and taxation on the imports of food and essential materials and thus be able to deal with the situation which may arise. With these considerations we shall offer no opposition to the proposal or to the procedure.

§ Sir Percy Harris
I would like to make a reference to the Import Duties Advisory Committee as I took a part in bringing it into the world. I have not sung its praises, but I realise that the three members of the Committee have always done their work with great diligence and impartiality. I have never been in love with the procedure, and if the matter is to be simplified, if Ministers are to have a more direct responsibility and will not be able to take cover behind the recommendations of the Committee, we need express no great regret. Incidentally, I should like to know what is to happen to these distinguished gentlemen? Are they to be put into cold storage or kept in being, receiving their salaries, or will their great abilities be diverted to some more useful purpose? I think that, apart from luxuries, imports on the whole should be encouraged. It is reasonable to assume, particularly in regard to food imports, that if we can get them into the country we are adding to the national strength in carrying out the supreme task of bringing the war to a successful issue. I think the Government might give a lead in 449 these matters to traders and to the public as to what their policy is.
As to luxuries, I agree that in the interests of the exchange and the economy of cargo space they should be discouraged. I remember the much maligned McKenna Duties. They have been made the excuse for all sorts of policies since they were initiated. They were put on for the definite purposes of assisting the exchange position and economising cargo space, both excellent purposes in time of war. It would be a good thing if the Government would take the opportunity of making clear to traders, merchants and shipowners exactly what their policy is, so that the business world can co-operate with the Government in discouraging the importation of goods which do not help the prosecution of the war and permitting the import of such goods, irrespective of whether they come under the category of goods manufactured in this country, which in the national interest should be imported on as large a scale as possible

§ Sir Patrick Hannon
May I be permitted for a moment to acknowledge the value of the work done by the Import Duties Advisory Committee since it came into existence" That the Resolution ' Import Duties (Emergency Provisions) ' to be proposed in Committee of Ways and Means may be considered this day as soon as it is reported from the Committee, notwithstanding the practice of the House relating to the interval between consideration in Committee and on Report of such Resolution, and that more than one stage of any Bill ordered to be brought in upon such Resolution may be proceeded with at any Sitting, notwithstanding the practice of the House relating to the interval between the various stages of a Bill relating to Finance. —and into existence against the intensive opposition of the hon. Member for South-West Bethnal Green (Sir P. Harris)? Those who are concerned in the protection of the home market are quite satisfied with the change which is being made in the circumstances. We are confident that the Treasury in the exercise of these new functions will give full consideration to the exigencies of industry, in the same way as the Import Duties Advisory Committee. We accept the Resolution, and we shall do everything we can to co-operate with the Treasury in making the new procedure a success.