HC Deb 12 July 1976 vol 915 cc7-8
4. Mr. Peter Morrison

asked 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. Morrison

Is 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. Meacher

In 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. Jay

Does 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. Meacher

We 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 Fraser

This 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. Meacher

The 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.