HC Deb 18 October 1976 vol 917 cc929-32
8. Mr. Peter Morrison

asked the Secretary of State for Trade whether he has any plans to visit the USSR to discuss the balance of trade between Great Britain and the COMECON countries.

Mr. Meacher

My right hon. Friend has no present plans to visit the Soviet Union before the meeting of the British-Soviet Joint Commission in Moscow next spring, though I myself visited the Soviet Union a fortnight ago.

Mr. Morrison

Will the Minister explain how the Government can continue to provide favoured trading conditions for the COMECON countries, particularly as long as British industrialists are forced to pay more than 15 per cent. for new investment? Is he satisfied that those countries are not dumping in this country?

Mr. Meacher

First, in view of the phraseology of the Question, I assure the hon. Gentleman that, whilst the Eastern European countries are not exactly politically independent of the Soviet Union, Ministers do not go to Moscow to discuss trade with the Eastern European countries. The surplus of our trade with the COMECON countries, excluding the Soviet Union, was £100 million in 1975. The trend this year is slightly less but it is still considerable. That is a good reason for continuing to trade with them. We already have a large series of import restraints, whether by quotas or voluntary action. As my right hon. Friend has said, we also have a number of antidumping applications which we are urgently considering.

Mr. Ford

Will my hon. Friend tell me when he might come to a determination on the anti-dumping application lodged by the Clothing Manufacturers Federation in April this year to which a reply is urgently needed? Will he note that my constituency is seriously affected by unfairly subsidised imports of electric motors from the State trading countries, the price of which cannot in any way be related to the cost of production?

Mr. Meacher

My hon. Friend will know that we accepted for full investigation the application by the Clothing Manufacturers Federation with regard to Eastern European suits. We made an announcement last month. I cannot tell my hon. Friend precisely when that investigation will be completed, but I assure him that we are undertaking it with the fullest urgency and I hope that we shall shortly come up with an answer. Any application made by the relevant manufacturers of electric motors will receive the urgent attention which we give to all these matters.

Mr. Jopling

Before the hon. Gentleman embarks on any talks, will he take immediate action to deal with the dumping of footwear from COMECON countries which is causing a great deal of short-time working and factory closures throughout the country? Is he aware, for example, that a successful and well-known footwear firm in my constituency has discovered that shoes coming from Czechoslovakia, which are a stitch-for-stitch copy of those made by the firm, are retailing at £3.82 a pair, whereas the cost of the materials alone is £4.60? Does not the Minister agree that that is intolerable and that further action must be taken to stop the closure of firms in this country?

Mr. Meacher

The Question is about Eastern Europe, and we already have restraints on men's leather footwear from Czechoslovakia, Romania and Poland which were continued in 1976 at the 1975 level, which was 5 to 10 per cent. below the 1974 import level. That restraint was extended last year also to women's and children's leather footwear, and it has been continued this year at last year's level. Sandals were excluded in both cases. We have now accepted for investigation the question of the alleged dumping of sandals, although the number of workers and the number of businesses concerned in the manufacture of sandals in this country is very small. Nevertheless, we have undertaken to do that and we shall also take any further action that is necessary.

Mrs. Renée Short

What help is my hon. Friend's Department giving to firms that wish to export to COMECON countries, particularly the Soviet Union, which has the largest purchasing potential?

Mr. Meacher

As my hon. Friend knows, my right hon. Friend the former Prime Minister on his visit to Moscow in February last year agreed on a line of credit of nearly £1 billion to facilitate trade between this country and the Soviet Union in line with the fact that our competitors had hitherto had a much bigger slice of that market and we are determined to get an equal or larger portion of it.

Mr. Higgins

Did the Minister go to Moscow without realising that our trade policy with COMECON countries is becoming more and more lunatic on both exports and imports? On exports, industry in the USSR can obtain finance for capital goods on far better terms than can anyone who is producing them in this country. On imports, I back up what my hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester (Mr. Morrison) said. If goods are being landed in this country by COMECON countries at less than the price at which our producers can buy the raw materials, is that dumping or is it not?

Mr. Meacher

On the question of the Soviet Union being able to obtain goods on a better rate of credit than is obtainable by domestic producers, we are talking about exports and there is no direct analogy with domestic producers. All we have offered to the Soviet Union is a rate of interest that is, so far as we can judge, competitive with that provided by other Western European countries and the United States. We can do no less if we are to get a share of that market. I shall not discuss the precise terms because that would be against the interests of the firms which I hope will be increasing their trade with the Soviet Union.

On imports, as I made clear, we undertake to ensure that the COMECON countries do not have an unfair advantage in this country inasmuch as under the 1969 Act we have to draw a parallel with the market economy countries. That is not always an easy exercise but it is one which has to be legally defensible in the courts. We try to reach the fairest analogy we can and act on that.

Mr. Speaker

Order. We are getting far away from Question Time in arguing and debating.