§ Mr. Elliot Morley (Glanford and Scunthorpe)I am grateful for the opportunity to present a petition to the House from the Orkney and Shetland salmon farmers. The petition was presented yesterday to me as Opposition fisheries spokesman, to the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Wallace), who represents many of the salmon farmers, and to the shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, my hon. Friend the Member for Hamilton (Mr. Robertson).
The petition expresses concern about the dire consequences for the Scottish salmon farming industry of the dumping of salmon from Norway within the European Community. It is clearly being dumped on to the European and United Kingdom market at way below its production price. There is no doubt that the Scottish salmon industry feels that the Government have not fought its case strongly enough in the European Commission to ensure fair and legal trading opportunities for our salmon farming industry.
The petition makes it clear that more than 6, 000 jobs in the industry are at risk. Those jobs are in rural areas where there are few job opportunities. There will be little chance of replacing the jobs if they are lost. The petition says:
The Honourable, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled; the humble petition of the residents of Scotland, Shetland and Orkney sheweth the Scottish, Orkney and Shetland Salmon Farming industry requires urgent safeguard action measures that will achieve stability in our industry by a combination of a substantially increased minimum import price and a restriction on imports of salmon to the EC set at 2, 000 tonnes per week.Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your honourable House will request swift safeguard action from the EC Commission that will effectively introduce fair and legal market conditions for our industry's 6, 000 employees and to protect our £200 million total contribution to the UK's balance of payments.I very much hope that the Government will take note of this petition and will act upon it urgently.
§ To lie upon the Table.