§ Q3. Mr. John Wellsasked the Prime Minister if he will transfer all responsibility for horticultural import control from the Board of Trade to the Ministry of Agriculture.
§ The Prime MinisterNo, Sir.
§ Mr. WellsIs the Prime Minister aware that British growers have a fundamental distrust of the Board of Trade and feel that it has frequently betrayed them? Will he take active steps to bring the attention of the Board of Trade to the great import saving which could be achieved by British horticulture?
§ The Prime MinisterI think the hon. Gentleman is the only hon. Gentleman ever to have chewed a horticultural product in the House of Commons. Obviously, this matter has had to be considered from time to time. We take the same view as our predecessors did— that control over international trade in this and other products should rest with the Board of Trade, not with the Department concerned with the sponsoring of production in this country. However, the hon. Gentleman, who has made his position very clear, will know how much has been done to help British horticulture.
§ Mr. GardnerWill my right hon. Friend assure the House that whoever is responsible for the operation of Government policy in these maters will operate it mainly in the interests of the British consumer?
§ The Prime MinisterMy right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade has responsibility for the general level of prices and the interests of consumers and a reasonable concern for seeing that British producers get a fair crack of the whip, but not to be protective against others who might produce more efficiently. In this case, horticulture, I think that he holds the balance very fairly.
§ Mr. HeathIs the Prime Minister aware that I am sure that import control should rest with the Board of Trade, so long as the Board of Trade is responsible for overseas trade affairs? However, would he not agree from his own experience that for a long period there has been a problem of the time it takes to implement anti-dumping regulations and that they are often ineffective because the season for the horticultural product is over by the time action is taken? Is he aware that some of us have tried to think of ways in which this difficulty could be overcome? Might we not have a sort of prima facie decision that there is dumping so that action could be taken by the Board of Trade which would then have time to explore the situation and reach a final conclusion? Would not this speed up the whole process and prevent it from being ineffective?
§ The Prime MinisterI know that the right hon. Gentleman addressed himself to this matter when he was President of the Board of Trade, as have my right hon. Friends. Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman has not fully taken into account the effects of the 1968 Act which empowers the President of the Board of Trade to take provisional anti-dumping action, to take prompt action in the prima facie case when, as the right hon. Gentleman suggest, for seasonal or other reasons it is urgent that action should be taken and then to have the necessary inquiries afterwards. In other words, what the right hon. Gentleman is suggesting we have legislative powers to ensure.