HC Deb 10 November 1960 vol 629 cc1357-8

10.6 p.m.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. Niall Macpherson)

I beg to move, That the Import Duties (General) (No. 8) Order, 1960 (SI, 1960, No. 1219), dated 19th July, 1960, a copy of which was laid before this House on 22nd July, in the last Session of Parliament, be approved. The Order that I am asking the House to approve is made under the Import Duties Act, 1958, and imposes an import duty of ¾d. per pack on ordinary playing cards. It was laid before the House on 22nd July and has been in operation since 4th August. Technically, the Order imposes a new duty and, therefore, is subject to the affirmative Resolution procedure, but actually it merely continues the import duties under the Import Duties Act with a small margin of protection for home manufacture embodied in the longstanding revenue duties previously charged on playing cards. Those duties were 3s. per dozen packs and 3s. 9d. a dozen on imported packs and were repealed by the Finance Act, 1960, with effect from 4th August, the same date that the new duty came into effect.

We discussed this matter with the United Kingdom manufacturers and there seemed no reason why the removal of the old Revenue duty should deprive the home manufacturers of the protection they had been enjoying for so long. I would only add that in imposing this duty we have complied in every way with our obligations under the G.A.T.T. and the E.F.T.A. Convention.

No new margin of preference is created in favour of imports from the Commonwealth, since the duty will apply to them in the same way as the old Revenue duty applied on imported cards. Imports from E.F.T.A. countries are by provision of the Import Duties (European Free Trade Association) (No. 2) Order, 1960, free of duty.

With this explanation, I hope that the House will approve the Order.

Mr. Douglas Jay (Battersea, North)

I am not objecting to what the Government are doing, but can the hon. Member explain why, in the rather picturesque example of playing cards, we have to have a special Order, apparently, to remove the duty on goods coming from E.F.T.A. countries whereas for a large number of other goods imported from the countries who are members of the Seven we apparently need not have a similar Order? Why is that?

Mr. MacPherson

In the ordinary way it would have been possible to have asked the E.F.T.A. countries to agree to our imposing this duty and possibly to offer to them the usual one-fifth initial concession, but since it is a very small percentage duty it seemed more reasonable in the circumstances not to impose the duty at all, particularly since, if we had done so, we should still have been creating a reverse preference, so to speak, against the Commonwealth.

Question put and agreed to.