HL Deb 23 July 1959 vol 218 cc460-5

3.54 p.m.

THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (VISCOUNT HAILSHAM)

My Lords, it may be for the convenience of the House if I read a Statement which my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer is now making in another place. The Statement, which I will read in my right honourable friend's own words, is as follows.

"I will now make a statement about the Stockholm discussions.

"The Paymaster General and I attended a meeting at Stockholm on July 20 and 21, to which, together with Austrian, Danish, Norwegian, Portuguese and Swiss Ministers, we had been invited by the Swedish Government. As the House knows, this meeting was called to consider whether these seven countries should set up a free trade association among themselves. The object of such an association would be to create a single market of nearly 90 million people by abolishing tariffs and other barriers to trade. Our partners in this group enjoy a high standard of living. They import over £3,000 million a year. Freedom of trade within this group must help us all to increase our production, raise our standard of living and maintain full employment.

"We decided unanimously at the Stockholm meeting to recommend to our Governments that such an association should be created. A Convention is to be drafted, and we hope that this will be ready for submission to Governments by the end of October. We aim to establish the new association in time for the first tariff reduction to take place on July 1, 1960.

"The Draft Plan for a European Free Trade Association which we had before us was made public in Stockholm last night and, for the convenience of honourable Members, I am arranging for this, together with the agreed statement with which we concluded our meeting, to be published as a White Paper as soon as printing can be completed. I hope this can be done by next Monday afternoon.

"It was agreed that there should be a special agreement on agriculture, setting out the agreed objectives on agriculture and food policy, providing for consultation where appropriate, and designed to facilitate expansion of trade between members, having regard to the need to achieve a sufficient degree of reciprocity between them This objective is satisfied in the case of the United Kingdom by the terms of the bilateral agreement which we have made with Denmark.

"There will be further discussions on fish and fish products. The Draft Plan sets out in detail the proposals made by the Norwegian Government and the position taken by other Delegations to them. The United Kingdom made clear that it could not contemplate removing the tariff on fresh or frozen fish. But we said that if there were an agreement on fish generally satisfactory to us, we would be prepared to treat preserved and processed fish—broadly, canned fish and fish meal—as industrial products.

"The purposes of Her Majesty's Government in taking part in this decision to set up a European Free Trade Association were broadly two. In the first place, these arrangements will be advantageous in their own right to the United Kingdom and to all the other members. The Ministers meeting at Stockholm were unanimous in their conviction on this.

"Secondly, we, and all the other Governments, believe that this is the best way to advance towards a single European market, free of tariffs and other restrictions.

"We have repeatedly indicated the importance we all attach to a Europe-wide agreement for freer trade. The detailed arrangements—as will be seen when the White Paper is published—have been shaped to facilitate subsequent negotiations with our partners in O.E.E.C, both the members of the European Economic Community and those who are members neither of the Community nor of the new Association. We have made arrangements for the question of relations with other members of O.E.E.C. to be kept under continuous review. We have each of us indicated our desire to accredit representatives to the Community.

"On many occasions this House has indicated the widespread support there is for trading and economic arrangements which will embrace the Six and all other members of O.E.E.C. I can assure the House that all the Governments with whom we have been negotiating at Stockholm hold this view no less strongly.

"I am confident that this agreement at Stockholm this week will prove to be a historic step forward in European economic co-operation, both in its immediate purposes and in the prospects it opens for the future."

VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLS-BOROUGH

My Lords, I am obliged to the Lord President for making the statement he has just made. We shall await with great interest the White Paper containing the Draft Plan. At present, of course, it is not possible to go into detail because we do not know the conditions which will operate in particular industries, one of which has been under question this afternoon in your Lordships' House and the other of which is to be debated next week.

Whether the steps mentioned in this statement will be sufficient to protect British agriculture, I do not know, but no doubt steps will be taken to see that the White Paper includes the full conditions of that agreement and any special conditions which are to be applied to particular industries, such as the paper industry, that was under discussion at Question Time this afternoon. If we could know that, and if we could also get the convenience of having, if possible, a saving of the time of your Lordships by printing in the White Paper the present comparative figures of imports and exports of all the seven countries concerned, that would be a great help in coming to a judgment on the general matter. Apart from all that, I feel that all sections of British economy and political interests will be in general favour of doing all we can to improve matters in the exchange of trade. But we need to be satisfied upon these details, and the best way is to reserve that for debate on the White Paper when the draft plan is included in it.

VISCOUNT ELIBANK

My Lords, as I had a question down on this matter this afternoon perhaps I may say this—and in saying it I do not involve any of my noble friends sitting around me. So far as one is able to judge from the statement, this is not free trade, at any rate to my way of thinking. It is lop-sided free trade: we sacrifice some industries on the altar for the benefit of other industries. That is particularly so, as far as I can see, in relation to the paper industry, in reference to which I asked a Question to-day. It is not possible to discuss it now, but I hope, as the noble Viscount the Leader of the Opposition said he hopes, that the arrangements to be made in regard to the agricultural industry will be included in the White Paper. If that is so, I hope that any arrangements which are going to ease the difficult position which will assuredly be created in the paper trade in Scotland will also be illuminated in the White Paper.

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

My Lords, I am grateful to both noble Lords who have intervened. I think I should say to the noble Viscount, Lord Elibank, that I do not think it is fair to say that this is in any sense other than free trade or that it is in any sense "lop-sided." A substantial majority of representative associations of British industries support the proposed free trade association of the Seven, either because it will bring them direct benefits or because they hope it will lead to wider European arrangements. As the noble Viscount, Lord Alexander of Hillsborough, observed, it would be wrong to anticipate a debate on two subjects which are already on the Order Paper, either for to-day or for next Tuesday, and I will say no more than that about individual industries.

As regards the White Paper, I think I ought to remind your Lordships of what the actual statement says, which is that the White Paper is (we hope) to be published next Monday afternoon, as soon as printing can be completed; and what was in my right honourable friend's mind to put in it, as I read from the statement, is the draft plan made public in Stockholm last night, together with the agreed statement with which the meeting was concluded. My right honourable friend will of course consider the particular suggestions which were made on the terms of the statement, but I think I should be less than frank if I did not point out that they are outside the scope of the White Paper as contemplated in the terms of the statement. However, I will convey what has been said to my right honourable friend, and no doubt he will think in what appropriate way, whether in that or some other, he can help noble Lords who wish for further details.

VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLS-BOROUGH

I am obliged to the noble Viscount. I think it would greatly help the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his aim to get this Plan approved if such special conditions as I have referred to could be included in the White Paper, so that we might know when the discussion comes what is intended. Otherwise it might imperil the free passage of what he wants.

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

I am not sure without studying it—and like the noble Viscount the Leader of the Opposition I have not had that opportunity—what is in the Draft Plan. It may be that it meets the point. At any rate, I am sure that my right honourable friend would wish to consider what the noble Viscount has said.

LORD SILKIN

My Lords, I appreciate the difficulties of getting the White Paper earlier than Monday. Nevertheless, we are to debate this matter on Tuesday next and it does not give us very much time. Could the noble Viscount try to expedite publication and see whether it is at all possible—I should quite understand if it is not—for us to get this White Paper over the week-end, so that we may have a little longer time to study it?

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

That again I will report to my right honourable friend, although I must point out that the sooner we try to get it out the less we shall be able to put in it. If it is desired in any way to go beyond the terms that I have read out, I should have thought that on Thursday afternoon it would be impossible in present conditions to get it agreed and printed, in order to be available before Saturday. I know that my right honourable friend would wish to study the convenience of Members of this House, so far as he can.

LORD SILKIN

It might be possible to get out two statements; that is to say, to get out the original information that was intended for the week-end, and possibly a supplementary statement on Monday, as suggested.

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

That again will be noted. I do not want to preclude anything, but noble Lords, I hope, will be forbearing, bearing in mind that we are in considerable difficulty on more than one front at this time of the year.