HC Deb 16 July 1957 vol 573 cc981-2

Any statutory instrument made in exercise of the power to make regulations conferred on the Board of Trade by the Fifth Schedule to the Finance Act, 1933 (which contains provisions for determining the country of origin of imported goods for purposes of preference under the Import Duties Act, 1932, and the Ottawa Agreements Act, 1932), shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.—[Mr. Powell.]

Brought up, and read the First time.

Mr. Powell

I beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time.

The desirability of this new Clause arises in the following way. Under the simplification of Customs duty procedure which is introduced by Clause 5 and the Second Schedule to the Bill, preference will be allowed in cases of duty leviable upon a component part of goods in respect of the provenance of the goods themselves and not of the component part. That is to say, in future, in order to decide whether preference is allowable in respect of that particular duty it will be necessary only to look at the country of origin of the goods which contain the dutiable article and not to go back to the country of origin of the dutiable article which forms part of the goods.

As a result, it will be necessary to make new preference regulations on this new and simplified basis. The preference applies, however, to two kinds of duty— protective duties levied under the 1933 Finance Act and Rvenue duties levied under the 1919 Finance Act. Unfortunately, while the preference regulations under the 1919 Act are prayable, those under the 1933 Act—probably by a mere oversight—are not prayable.

It is, consequently, not practicable to make one set of new preference regulations without producing the monstrosity of a set of regulations part of which could be annulled by a Prayer by this House and part of which could not. It is to make it possible to make one set of regulations which will be subject to annulment by this House that the annulment procedure is applied by this new Clause to regulations under the 1933 Act.

5.0 p.m.

Mr. Roy Jenkins (Birmingham, Stechford)

The proposed Clause seems very reasonable to us, and we certainly would not wish to oppose it. We hope that the Government Front Bench will welcome the new Clauses that we move in the way that we are able to welcome this one.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.