§ 1. Mr. John Hall asked the President of the Board of Trade why the arrangements made for the remission of duty on the import of goods referred to in paragraphs 1(b) and 1(c) of the Fourth Schedule to the Import Duties Act, 1958, have been suspended.
§ The Minister of State, Board of Trade (Mr. George Darling)Because my right hon. Friend is no longer satisfied that it is expedient for such relief to be given.
§ Mr. HallIs not the Minister of State aware that there are still many items of 468 machinery which are imported under this Schedule which cannot be made in this country and which are essential for manufacturing processes in this country. Will he not reconsider this matter?
§ Mr. DarlingNo, Sir. The applications for remission of duty on imported machinery apply only to a small part of our machinery imports, and the advantage of remission, if it is granted, is decreasing as tariffs come down. Secondly, in order to deal with the applications, the Board of Trade has to keep a very large staff of officials and technical experts. A further point is that there are cases where remission of duty has been granted and where this fact has been publicised by the foreign manufacturers as showing that the foreign machinery is much better than the British machinery which we wish to export.