§ 10.11 p.m.
§ The Minister of State, Board of Trade (Mr. J. K. Vaughan-Morgan)I beg to move,
That the Additional Import Duties (No. 5) Order, 1958 (S.I., 1958, NJ. 1564), dated 19th September, 1958, a copy of which was laid before this House on 19th September, in the last Session of Parliament, be approved.The Order makes a technical adjustment in the new iron and steel tariff, which is 10 per cent. with alternative specific rates. This tariff was introduced in April to implement our agreement with the European Coal and Steel Community, and was put into effect by the Additional Import Duties (No. 3) Order, 1958.When that Order was approved, my hon. Friend, the then Parliamentary Secretary, explained why a further Order and Resolution might be necessary. Some of the duties were then temporarily suspended and it was not possible under the existing legislation, which expires on 1st January, 1959, to make an increase in a duty which was suspended.
It was therefore necessary to insert a provision in the No. 3 Order to the effect that it altered the suspended duties only to the extent that it did not increase them. The suspension Orders were due to terminate on 18th September and if any of the suspensions had not been renewed, it would then become necessary to make a further Order, bringing the duties into effect, so far as they were increases.
Most of the suspensions were not renewed after 18th September and therefore the new Order makes the increases on those items on which duty again becomes chargeable, thus completing the introduction of the new agreed rates in respect of those items. The increases effected by the Order are theoretical since they apply only to material at far below the current prices, for example, to pig iron at below £.10 a ton.
The House may well ask—as I did when this was first put before me—why this academic and theoretical exercise was necessary. The point is that if the Order had not been made it would have meant under the existing legislation reproducing the obsolete and complicated headings of the old tariff to cover this material and the 1274 resulting tariff would have been extremely confusing to importers and Customs officials alike.
§ 10.14 p.m.
§ Mr. Douglas Jay (Battersea, North)In private life the hon. Gentleman has some familiarity with the engineering industry, and although I used to have some familiarity with the iron and steel industry during the war, it might be unfair if I were to ask him just what is meant by a bandsaw strip affected by one of these Orders, although he may like to tell us.
I understand that the changes produced by the Orders in the import duties, so far as they are not entirely what the hon. Gentleman called academic and theoretical, will be increases in the duty. I believe that opportunities were given for objectors to the change, from industry or elsewhere, to make representations against it if they so wished. Were any representations made by consumers of these steel products against the changes which the Government now wish to make?
§ Mr. Vaughan-MorganI ought to break it to the right hon. Gentleman that we are not discussing bandsaw strip yet. We have not got on to that. That is another Order. This is Order No. 5 which deals entirely with duties which were suspended when the other Order, bringing duties down to 10 per cent., was made. It is an academic exercise and there is no effective change in the tariff.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ 10.16 p.m.
§ Mr. Vaughan-MorganI beg to move,
That the Import Duties (Exemptions) (No. 20) Order, 1958 (S.I., 1958, No. 1788), dated 28th October, 1958, a copy of which was laid before this House on 31st October, be approved.The Order which I am now asking the House to approve reimposes the 10 per cent. general ad valorem duty on band-saw strip of 3 inches and over, but less than 10½ inches wide or thinner than 16 gauge. Sizes 10½ inches wide and over, and from 16 to 12 gauge will continue to be exempt from duty. I am sure that the House will not want too many technical details upon this otherwise fascinating subject.Bandsaw strip is a type of nickel steel strip produced by continuous rolling, hardening and tempering processes and 1275 is used for making bandsaws for cutting wood in the furniture and woodworking trades and cutting trees into planks. Before the war the whole supply came from Sweden, but during and since the war production in the widths from 3 inches to 10¼ inches has been developed in this country and an application for a 10 per cent. duty on all widths over 3 inches was submitted to the Board of Trade, on the ground that after many years of very difficult and expensive development work the United Kingdom industry could now make strip to as high a standard as the Swedish producers, but they wanted a little longer both for further development and to allow the British product a fair chance to meet competition with the imported product on fully equal terms. It seemed to us that some case was made out for the sizes I have mentioned. Since the Order has been made there have been no complaints from the users.
We also had regard to the fact that the 10 per cent. duty is in line with those we introduced in April for iron and steel products generally, including similar types of strip, when we were implementing our tariff agreement with the European Coal and Steel Community. We have had the quantitative restrictions removed on imports of bandsaw strip and amended the open general licence accordingly. Strip over 10¼ inches wide is still not made here, and we decided that these very wide sizes, which are used almost entirely for the manufacture of saws for export, should continue to he admitted free of duty. We have in every way complied with the requirements of G. A.T.T.
§ Mr. JayI take it from what the Minister says that at least an opportunity was given to the users to make representations against the Order if they wished to. I understand that he has advanced this change on the ground that a further temporary period is necessary to home producers of this bandsaw strip to get into effective and established production. Can he tell the House how long this new duty will be in force if we accept the Order?
§ Mr. Vaughan-MorganIt will be a permanent duty until such time as application is made for its revocation or removal.
§ Question put and agreed to.