§ Baroness HORNSBY-SMITHasked Her Majesty's Government:
What circumstances led them to increase the import quota of cheap Romanian suits in view of the repeated representations of the industry that such garments were being imported at uneconomic prices, which contravene the dumping regulations and constitute a serious threat to the British textile industry.
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMThe Government have listened carefully to the representations which have been made by the industry about the volume and the price of Romanian suit imports. It was because of their—and our—concern on both these points that, unusually in such agreements, the access to the market for Romanian suits has not been materially increased for 1976 and 1977. In addition, we have secured agreement with Romania to procedures, formally outside the Agreement, which will in certain circumstances enable the Community to suspend licences of disruptively-priced imports pending consultations. This is over and above the investigation which is proceeding into the alleged dumping of suits from Romania and four other East European countries, and about which the Secretary of State for Trade hopes to make an announcement shortly.