§ 4. Mr. Peter Morrisonasked the Secretary of State for Trade whether he will set up an anti-dumping unit within his Department.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Trade (Mr. Michael Meacher)An anti-dumping unit has been in operation within my Department since 1957.
§ Mr. MorrisonIs the hon. Gentleman aware that amongst textile workers in the North-West there is a genuine feeling that there is no such anti-dumping unit and that the Government are prepared to sit back while more and more of them lose their jobs?
§ Mr. MeacherIn fact, 11 restraint agreements have now been signed, under EEC auspices, with low-cost producers which extend the protection of the textile industry beyond the traditional area of cotton into man-made fibres and also woollens, and which protect the industry more than ever before in its history from disruptive imports from low-cost producers.
§ Mr. JayDoes my hon. Friend regard the transfer of power over anti-dumping duties from the United Kingdom Government to the Brussels authorities as being one of the great benefits of our Common Market membership?
§ Mr. MeacherWe operate our existing legislation in the light of the GATT code, and the EEC operates under the same criteria. But we shall, in any event, in a year's time retain the anti-dumping unit in the Department to assist British industry.
§ Mr. Hugh FraserThis anti-dumping unit has been struggling for 18 months with cheap dumped imports of footwear from the COMECON countries. Surely there is something wrong with an antidumping unit that has not succeeded so far in ameliorating the position for the footwear trade.
§ Mr. MeacherThe truth of the matter over footwear is that voluntary restraint agreements were reached with three specific COMECON countries about maintaining their level of exports to us in 1975 in accordance with the level in 1974, and that has been maintained in 1976.