IRON AND STEEL (RESTRICTIVE TRADING AGREEMENTS) ORDER 1968 (Hansard, 28 June 1968)

§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF PUBLIC BUILDING AND WORKS (LORD WINTERBOTTOM)

My Lords, I beg to move that the Iron and Steel (Restrictive Trading Agreements) Order 1968, a draft of which was laid before your Lordships' House on May 20, be approved. This Order is made by the Minister in pursuance of his powers under Sect ion 33 of the Iron and Steel Act 1967. This provides for him to repeal Section 7(1) of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1956 when he is satisfied that 'ventral arrangements for the importation of raw materials or other iron and steel products for the use of the nationalised industry have been established under the British Steel Corporation's control.

Section 7(1) of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act provides for the exemption from registration under the Act of agreements between iron and steel producers for the central importation and distribution of raw materials and other iron and steel products; subsequent amendments to the subsection have made it the Minister of Power on whose approval exemption is dependent. Two agreements have been approved under Section 7(1). Under the first, all steel companies using imported iron and manganese agreed to obtain their supplies from B.I.S.C. (Ore) Limited, a subsidiary of the British Iron and Steel Federation; under the second, steel companies using imported magnesite and magnesite bricks agreed to obtain their supplies from the British Magnesite Corporation Limited, another subsidiary of the Federation. The Federation has now however been wound up and B.I.S.C. (Ore) and British Magnesite have become subsidiaries of the Corporation. The conditions set out in Section 33 of the Iron and Steel Act have therefore been satisfied and the Order can now be made.

1643 Under the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, agreements solely between interrelated bodies corporate—that is to say, between a body corporate and its subsidiaries are not registrable. Arrangements confined to the Corporation and the publicly owned companies are not therefore registrable and will not be affected by the loss of the exemption from registration afforded by Section 7(1) of the 1956 Act. The private sector interest is very small: less than 1 per cent. of the ore, and only 15 to 18 per cent. of the magnesite and bricks containing magnesite, imported last year by B.I.S.C. (Ore) and British Magnesite respectively went to private sector companies. The Corporation have, however, offered all the private sector companies the use of their central purchasing facilities at terms comparable with those at which they will be available to public sector companies. My Lords, I beg to move.