British Steel Corporation (Uniform Delivered Price) (Hansard, 25 October 1971)

31. Mr. Edward Taylor
asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will take steps to ascertain from the European Coal and Steel Community whether it will be possible for the British Steel Community to maintain its policy of offering a uniform delivered price for steel products throughout the United Kingdom in the event of Great Britain joining that Community.

§ Mr. John Davies
No, Sir. The pricing rules are an intergral part of the Treaty of Paris. From the outset it has been accepted that we should conform to Community practice.

Mr. Taylor
Is my right hon. Friend aware that a system of regional pricing could cause grave damage to Scottish industry? If the British Steel Corporation decided to introduce regional pricing in this country, as we have in the gas and electricity industries, would the Minister still have the ability to put on a general direction to stop it?

§ Mr. Davies
No, I should not be in a position to give a general directive in this sense. My hon. Friend must appreciate that the basing points for pricing purposes within the framework of the E.C.S.C. Treaty are at the discretion of the industry itself. I do not see a situation arising in which the industry would be debarred from setting the price level it wishes for any given area of consumption.

§ Mr. Kaufman
Is the Minister aware that if we were to enter the E.C.S.C. he would be unable to give general directions on anything? Is he satisfied with the diminution of democracy which this abolition of his parliamentary answerability would involve?

§ Mr. Davies
The hon. Gentleman will be aware that the use of the general direction has not been an habitual method of the Government in their relations with the industry. He will recall that the Government, as the representative of the investor—that is, the public in relation to this industry—in no way deprive themselves of all the rights and duties of the representative of that investor concerning investment and such matters in the industry. The absence of a right of general direction does not in itself constitute a severe limitation of the Government's position.