§ 3.10 p.m.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are aware of the continued closures of textile mills in Lancashire and Yorkshire; whether they have noted recent closures of cotton textile mills in the Oldham area; and what steps they propose to take and how soon measures will become effective.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Industry (Viscount Trenchard)My Lords, the Government fully appreciate the gravity of the situation facing the United Kingdom textile industry and view the continuing closures of mills in Lancashire, including Oldham, Yorkshire, and elsewhere very seriously indeed. We shall continue our efforts to help the textile industry within the framework of our international obligations and our broad economic policies. I expect that the textile industry will welcome the Government's decision, announced last Friday, to extend the Temporary Short-Time Working Compensation Scheme for a further period.
§ Lord HaleYes, my Lords; but is the noble Viscount aware that he has given a very similar Answer on at least a dozen occasions, in particular in reply to Questions put down by the noble Baroness, Lady Hornsby-Smith, who has worked so very hard on this matter? Does the noble Viscount now know that we can give him a list of mills and factories, which have a long historic connection with the town and which even survived the dreadful years under the last Tory Government before the war, when I went to find ivy growing on the mills and scores of mills closed down? Will the noble Viscount please realise that there must be some measure of protection in favour of an industry which has been virtually strike-free for 20 years or more, which has been rather low in the wages scale and which has endured all that in order to keep the town's special industries alive? Now we are facing a situation of such gravity that it really cannot be dealt with by 197 placebos or assurances, and we want to know from the Minister—
§ Lord RhodesMy Lords, will the Minister—
§ Viscount TrenchardMy Lords, following those 10 supplementary questions, may I have a moment before moving on to the next ones? We really do understand the severity of the situation. At the same time the textile and clothing, industry as a whole is still some 700,000 (or a little under that) strong and still represents 10 per cent. of the total of those employed in manufacturing industry. Thus it is a very important industry, and the situation in it is well understood. In stressing the problems, which obviously he feels about very deeply, the noble Lord suggested, I think—or by his intonation he did—that we were not doing anything. Of course that really is not true. Our international obligations, which I mentioned in my first reply, cover the MFA negotiated before our time and renegotiated in 1977, and the Tokyo Round. In both cases we have used those obligations to the maximum possible extent. We have some 400 quotas in relation to cheap wage cost countries' supplies. Thirty new quotas have been negotiated this year, and I think that that is the greatest number that has been negotiated in a single year.
A very large part of the imports from cheap countries are under control. We took action under Article 19 of GATT in relation to two United States products last year. These come up for renewal and discussions are taking place at the present time. We have given, and are continuing to give, aid to the industry on quite a large scale under both Sections 7 and 8 of the Industry Act.
However, as a trading country we have to take note of our need to maintain our export trade in every form of goods and we cannot use protection in a way which Rives grounds for retaliatory action which the United States of America under Article 19 is able to take, for instance, against the woollen goods of Yorkshire.
§ Lord RhodesMy Lords, will the Minister pay me the compliment of listening to what I shall have to say on this subject in today's debate, since I have something constructive to say?
§ Viscount TrenchardMy Lords, the noble Lord always has constructive things to say. I assure him that, if I am unable to be present when he is speaking, I shall read Hansard and afterwards make contact with him.
§ Lord Taylor of BlackburnMy Lords, in view of what the Minister has said, where there is difficulty in the textile areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire, will he be prepared to talk to his colleagues with a view to reintroducing development area status or assisted area status where it is at present withdrawn?
§ Viscount TrenchardMy Lords, the Question refers to Oldham, which is still an intermediate area and thus eligible under Section 7 of the Industry Act until 1982; and Section 7 grants are still being made. We are constantly looking at cases from all over the country in relation to gradings, and where extreme changes have taken place since our review of regional policy, as in the case of the massive steel closures, we have acted. But we have to take account of the long-term positions of these areas in terms of altering any other gradings.
§ Lord Mackie of BenshieMy Lords, the Minister is aware, of course, that this question applies all over the country and applies in particular in Scotland and to the textile areas of' Angus, where the most go-ahead firms have suffered perhaps most severely in the case of polypropylene. Is the noble Viscount able to expand his answer on the dealings with the United States?—because it is grossly unfair that the feed stock in the United States costs about half of what it costs here, and our most progressive firms are suffering extremely severely from this fact. In fact polymer polypropylene from the United States is selling at about £280 a tonne, whereas the most efficient firms here are producing at only £350. Can the noble Viscount tell us something about that?
§ Viscount TrenchardMy Lords, in the time available to answer the question I would say only that there have been two successful anti-dumping applications in relation to the United States of America in this field, and there are others being considered by the Commission at present.
§ Lord HaleMy Lords, in thanking the Minister for his very courteous answer, may I ask a question on a single point? Will he remember that the figure of 700,000, to which he referred, is obtained by a complete new regrouping of a whole series of industries which have something in the nature of textile-allied products, and that that figure cannot usefully be compared with the figures as they were computed when I. was in the House some years ago?
§ Viscount TrenchardMy Lords, in terms of the noble Lord's original Question, I would say that in the cotton and textile fields the figure is 65,000, which is still a very considerable part of the whole.