Manufactured Goods (Hansard, 12 February 1986)

§ 9. Mr. Michie
asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will indicate the nature and size of the current deficit in the balance of trade in manufactured goods.

§ Mr. Channon
Within the overall surplus on the current account of £3.5 billion in 1985, there was a deficit on manufactures of £3.1 million.

§ Mr. Michie
I represent a Sheffield constituency which is famous for its manufactured goods, and we view with concern this continuing deficit. Is this what the Government call economic progress? Will the Minister make it clear that the Government's present policy is not taking us down the road of economic recovery with prosperity round the corner, but is running our manufacturing industry into the ground and making sure that many of our workers are living shorter lives, through worry and depression? The decent thing for the Minister to do is to get out of office and so give us a chance to stop being a country with nothing more than a chain of American-owned hamburger stalls.

§ Mr. Channon
The hon. Gentleman grossly exaggerates. Manufacturing industrial output is well into its fifth year of growth. Continuing growth is indicated by recent forecasts. Fixed investment in manufacturing for the first three quarters of 1985 is 8 per cent. higher than a year ago and, as I said, manufacturing exports, for example, are at record levels in volume and value.

§ Mr. Forth
Can my right hon. Friend confirm that manufacturing investment is up, productivity is up, output is up and exports are up? Does he not find great encouragement from those facts, and will he therefore condemn the constant pessimism from the Opposition and reaffirm the optimism that we have in the manufacturing sector?

§ Mr. Channon
My hon. Friend is right on all those points. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) does not believe him because he does not want to believe the facts.

§ Mr. Skinner
Of course I do not. They do not believe in the right hon. Gentleman outside.

§ Mr. Channon
The Opposition want to have only a gloomy story. They do not like good news, and my hon. Friend has told us what the good news is.

§ Mr. John Smith
Will the Secretary of State accept that the facts point out that the Government inherited a substantial surplus in the balance of trade of manufactured goods and now we have a huge deficit? Will the right hon. Gentleman tell us why that has occurred under the Government's economic management and what they intend to do to put it right? Will he please answer both parts of the question?

§ Mr. Channon
The answer to the right hon. and learned Gentleman is that manufacturing output is up and has been up for 1984 and 1985. It is well up on its trough in 1981. Manufacturing investment is substantially up, non-oil export volume is substantially up, the real rate of return for manufacturing companies is up and manufacturing productivity is also substantially up. Let us stop all the moaning that we hear from the Opposition.