HL Deb 26 July 1972 vol 333 cc1377-80

3.48 p.m.

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

My Lords, it may be convenient to the House if I intervene at this stage to repeat a Statement which is being made in another place by my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Statement is as follows:

" With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I should like to make a Statement on the conclusion of the Special Relations Agreements between the European Communities and each of the EFTA non-candidate countries.

" On Saturday, July 22, I represented Her Majesty's Government at the signature ceremony in Brussels for these Agreements. Because of the resignation of the Finnish Government two days earlier the Finnish Agreement was initialled but not signed.

" It had always been envisaged that the enlargement of the European Communities should be accompanied by suitable arrangements to meet the needs of the EFTA non-candidate countries. Our own strong interest in the preservaation so far as possible of the free trade already established under EFTA has been reaffirmed many times in this House and in the communiqués issued after Ministerial meetings of EFTA.

" The Agreements which have now been concluded provide for free trade in industrial goods between the Communities and each of the EFTA non-candidate countries after a transitional period, with additional agricultural provisions in some cases. Each Agreement follows the same general pattern but there are variations to meet the needs of each non-candidate country. Copies of the texts of the Agreements will be placed in the Library of the House.

" There are special transitional arrangements for a limited number of products, for example, paper imports from the EFTA non-candidate countries. The conclusion of the negotiations on paper, on which the Communities will be eliminating their tariff only over an extended period of eleven years, presented certain problems. It is particularly satisfactory that these were overcome. We agreed on a solution which took full account of the difficulty in which the British paper industry finds itself at present, and was also acceptable to our partners in the Communities and EFTA.

" I should like to recall that it has long been the policy of successive Governments to seek to heal the division of Western Europe into two trading blocs. The House will no doubt note with satisfaction that as a result of these Agreements this division has now been healed. That, I believe, is the real significance of last Saturday's ceremony."

That, my Lords, is the end of the Statement.

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, the House will be very grateful to the noble Baroness for repeating that Statement. I think it will be for the convenience of the House, if there is anything to be said on this Statement, that we should include it in our speeches to-day. From our side the Statement appears to be very satisfactory. There may be a period of reflection for all of us that the very satisfactory terms that have been obtained for the non-candidate EFTA countries would have offered extraordinarily satisfactory benefits to this country without the heavy burdens which this Agreement is going to impose upon us.

LORD GLADWYN

My Lords, on behalf of my colleagues on this Bench I should like to express our great satisfaction at the conclusion of this Agreement which sets up a Free Trade Area, generally speaking, of no less than fourteen countries. The more people there are in this area, and the more successfully it works, the more difficult it will be for anybody who dislikes our entry into the Common Market to disentangle us from it. May I ask whether the United States Government expresses any satisfaction or dissatisfaction at this Agreement? I hope that it expresses no dissatisfaction. Is there any indication of its point of view regarding general trade, or has the noble Baroness nothing to say on that point?

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

My Lords, I should like to thank noble Lords for the welcome they have given to the Statement. I would say to the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd, that the disadvantage of being a non-candidate country, even if you have a free trade area, is that you do not have a seat on the Board, so to speak, or have a power to influence the decisions of the Community as a whole. To the noble Lord. Lord Gladwyn, I would say that the United States has always expressed the wish that the countries of Europe should unite together and they have expressed no particular dissatisfaction over these Agreements.

LORD BLYTON

My Lords, does not the noble Baroness think, in the light of the Statement, that things would have been far better for England if we had not rushed in to make an Agreement like this for trade with Europe, involving the tribute that we have to pay and the necessity to accept the bureaucratic straitjacket of the Brussels Commission?

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

My Lords, I sought to answer that question in my reply to the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd. It is very important that as we become members of the European Community we should have the power to influence the decisions inside the Community—a power which we should not have if we were engaged only in a Free Trade Area.