HC Deb 28 July 1955 vol 544 cc1333-5
27. Mr. Green

asked the President of the Board of Trade what steps are being taken to encourage and assist the export of high quality textiles.

30. Mr. Fort

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement about his meeting with representatives of the Cotton Board on 27th July to discuss the promotion of British textiles.

31. Mr. Leavey

asked the President of the Board of Trade what steps he is contemplating to counter the waning confidence in the Lancashire textile industry.

Mr. P. Thorneycroft

The usual services of the Board of Trade are, of course, available to help exporters of all textiles. At my request, the Cotton Board Standing Joint Conference on Overseas Trade Policy came to see me yesterday, when a useful discussion took place over a wide range of matters affecting the export problems of the industry and the tasks confronting Government and industry alike in dealing with them. In my view, the existence of machinery of a more permanent character to undertake regular consultation on export questions would serve a useful purpose. I therefore proposed and it was agreed that such meetings should be held at regular intervals and arrangements are being made accordingly.

Mr. Green

While thanking my right hon. Friend for, and readily accepting, his real and obvious interest in the promotion of exports of high-quality textiles, may I ask him to bear in mind that a healthy export trade springs from a healthy home trade and that Purchase Tax is a cramping factor in the home market for high-quality textiles?

Mr. Thorneycroft

I will certainly bear that in mind. Of course, the removal of Purchase Tax from certain classes of textiles has had healthy results.

Mr. Fort

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the one class of textiles which is completely free of Purchase Tax, namely, industrial cloths, has both a flourishing home trade and, therefore, a flourishing export trade, in contrast to the other parts of the industry which are burdened with Purchase Tax?

Mr. Thorneycroft

Yes. Of course, the removal of Purchase Tax from the non-wool household textiles and furnishing fabrics had also helped in this regard.

Mr. H. Wilson

Has the President of the Board of Trade seen the figures of yarn production, showing that in the second quarter there has been a decline of over 13 per cent. compared with the same period of last year, and a rapid worsening even compared with the first quarter? In view of these very serious figures, when are we to have any glimmerings at all of any Government policy to deal with the situation?

Mr. Thorneycroft

Naturally, of course, I study, as the right hon. Gentleman does, the figures of production, but, as he is aware, this is a complex picture on which exports, imports and, not least, the situation of the American disposals, all have a bearing. It is not possible to give comprehensive answers to questions on these matters.

Mr. Glenvil Hall

Does it follow from what the right hon. Gentleman says that, because the matter is so complex, the Government are not going to find any policy at any time for the wool and cotton textile industry?

Mr. Thorneycroft

I have announced our policy on textiles in a number of debates, and recently, on 3rd May, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister himself made a comprehensive statement on many of these issues.

Mr. S. Silverman

Does the right hon. Gentleman not realise that all these comprehensive statements that members of the Government have made from time to time during the past few months have left the industry completely unsatisfied? When I say "the industry," I mean all sides of it. Do the Government not realise that the complexity of the problem, to which the right hon. Gentleman has himself referred, itself requires that the Government should concentrate now on making up their minds on what is their long-term constructive policy for the textile industry?

Mr. Thorneycroft

I certainly agree with the hon. Member that decisions of policy in many of these matters are industrial decisions and for the industry itself within the general framework of commercial policy laid down by the Government.