HL Deb 24 July 1975 vol 363 cc429-31

3.9 p.m.

Lord ABERDARE: My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are aware of the difficulties facing the United Kingdom paper and board industry and whether they will confirm that it is not their intention to increase the duty free quota of imports from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Austria for 1976.

The MINISTER of STATE, DEPARTMENT of INDUSTRY (Lord Beswick)

My Lords, my officials are in day-to-day contact with representatives of the industry and I am well aware of its current difficulties. The levels of paper and board quotas are normally set in the autumn and I have already agreed to meet the British Paper and Board Industry Federation before then to discuss the situation. In setting the quota levels it is of course necessary to take into account the interests of United Kingdom consumers of these products as well as those of the home producers.

Lord ABERDARE

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his reply. May I ask the noble Lord whether he is aware that this is a most important industry? It is not only an employer—often in rural areas—hut is also a net earner so far as our balance of payments is concerned. The result of this duty free quota is that most of the imports from these four countries enter this country free, whereas our European partners in the EEC are protected by a 10½ per cent. tariff. Therefore, it is very important that at the present time we do not increase this quota.

Lord BESWICK

My Lords. I am well aware of the fact that the industry is an important one. As the noble Lord will know, it is a cyclical industry and at the moment it is going through one of its very difficult periods. We shall bear this in mind when considering the quotas for next year.

Lord BALERNO

My Lords, have the Government any idea of the number of paper mills which have been either totally closed down during the past three years or are working on very short time?

Lord BESWICK

My Lords, I cannot give the noble Lord the total number. A deputation came to see me the other day about a mill which it was proposed to close down and I was told that it had been built by French prisoners of war who were captured during the Napoleonic Wars.

Lord ABERDARE

My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord a final question? When the noble Lord considers this quota, may I ask him whether he will take into account the fact that under the agreement this quota can never be reduced? Either it has to remain the same or it has to be increased.

Lord BESWICK

My Lords, the noble Lord is absolutely right. That is one reason why we shall be very reluctant to increase the quota. The noble Lord is also aware that, in all this, we are bound by the overall agreement with the EEC. Together with the other EEC countries, we have a commitment between now and 1984 to remove all the tariffs.

Lord DAVIES of LEEK

My Lords, without sounding like an irascible old curmudgeon can the noble Lord tell me who made a weird order like that?

Lord BESWICK

My Lords, it was part of the weirdness that we inherited over the Treaty of Rome.

Lord AUCKLAND

My Lords, is the noble Lord able to say whether negotiations have taken place with the Finnish Government or with the Finnish paper mills and is he aware that we are trying to increase our exports to Finland? While broadly supporting this measure, I feel that it may have a prejudicial effect on our exports to Finland.

Lord BESWICK

My Lords, I have no doubt we shall have regard to our exports to Finland, but the fact still remains that we have an arrangement which is not unsatisfactory to Finland and it would be unreasonable to make it more satisfactory to the detriment of our own producers.

Lord ABERDARE

My Lords, is the noble Lord absolutely right about the Treaty of Rome? Surely this was the result of our EFTA obligations.

Lord BESWICK

My Lords, that is not quite right. I saw the noble Lord having a consultation, but he will find that the obligations have been negotiated by the Community, taking into account the obligations which we have under the EFTA arrangement.

Lord ORR-EWING

My Lords, there are many organisations trying to collect waste paper and cardboard for recycling. If these imports were reduced, would not greater use be made of valuable raw material which exists in this country but which is not at present being used?

Lord BESWICK

My Lords, I am not quite sure that I have the noble Lord's question, but the difficulty at the moment is that we have an over-supply of the kind of paper that the noble Lord has in mind. It is not a question of not collecting it; it is finding people to use it. Further, in reply to the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, who seemed to have some doubts about the answer I gave him, if he reads Miscellaneous No. 52 of 1972 (Cmnd. 5180), the agreement between the European Economic Community and the Kingdom of Sweden, which is a similar agreement to that concluded with the other EFTA countries, he will see how our obligations arose out of the Treaty of Rome.

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