§ 9. Mr. DunnTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what was the value of exported manufactured goods for the year 1994–95; and if he will make a statement. [18696]
§ Mr. LangIn 1995, the value of exported manufactured goods was £127.5 billion, a substantial increase over the figure for 1994.
§ Mr. DunnIn congratulating all the people in industry who are responsible for such an outstanding result, does my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade agree that nothing could be more destructive of the United Kingdom's export success than the introduction of the social chapter and of the minimum wage, and the implementation of some of the European Court's dafter decisions?
§ Mr. LangMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. The improved productivity of manufacturing industry has been the secret of so much of our success and of the growth in employment, output and exports in that sector. That productivity growth of 80 per cent. since the Government came to office would be severely undermined if we accepted either the social chapter or a national minimum wage.
§ Mrs. ClwydDoes the calculation of value include possible losses under the export credits guarantee system? The President of the Board of Trade will recall that his Department lost £652 million of taxpayers' money in exporting so-called non-lethal equipment to Iraq—or has he refined his policies since then?
§ Mr. LangAccording to my recollection, the hon. Lady's figures in relation to defence equipment are wrong by a substantial margin, but I will of course check them. I hope that she realises that the purpose of the Export Credits Guarantee Department is to provide the insurance cover that our exporters need. It is matched by comparable schemes in other countries. Without it, it would be impossible for many companies to break into export markets and to achieve those remarkable and record export figures.
§ Mr. SykesFollowing my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Mr. Dunn), is my right hon. Friend aware that the French Government recently had to export a large contract to Pindars in my constituency of Scarborough because French companies cannot compete with companies in Britain? Is that not because we do not have the social chapter, the minimum wage and the 48-hour week?
§ Mr. LangMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. He will welcome, as I do, the fact that since 1981 the United Kingdom's volume of exports has risen faster than that of Germany, Italy or France, to which he refers.
§ Mrs. BeckettWhy does the Secretary of State agree with his hon. Friends when he must be aware that despite exporting success, which we all welcome, the level of imports of manufactured goods into this country is even higher and we have a net deficit of £8 billion? Many of the countries which export more successfully to us than we do to them are signatories of the social chapter and have national minimum wage type provision. Manufacturers argue that that substantial net deficit is due to the fact that we have too few world-class manufacturing companies, too few skilled workers for them to hire, and too little research and development and long-term investment. Why do Ministers not listen for once to manufacturers and to Labour Members and introduce the measures, such as investment allowances, that they urge on the Government to help solve those problems?
§ Mr. LangWe do not need lessons in this matter from the Labour party. From 1974 to 1979, the Labour Government's last period of office, we had the slowest growth in manufacturing productivity and the slowest growth in output of any country in the European Union. Through the period of office of this Government, there has been the highest growth in both productivity and 974 output of any country in the EU. As the right hon. Lady will have seen from figures published recently, we now have a visible trade surplus with the EU.