§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he considers that a deal limiting Japan to 79 per cent. of the European video recorder market is 267W satisfactory; how he sees the United Kingdom share of the video recorder market developing; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ButcherAs the hon. Member is aware, the United Kingdom market for video recorders is currently dominated by Japanese imports. Under the agreement reached in Tokyo recently Japanese VTR exports to the EC will be limited to a maximum of 4.55 million units in 1983.
The first steps towards a United Kingdom video recorder industry have already been taken by a joint venture company, J2T, formed by Thorn-EMI, JVC of Japan and Telefunken which commenced the asembly of video recorders in Newhaven, Sussex, in October 1982. During my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State's recent visit to Japan, two Japanese companies, Mitsubishi and Sanyo, announced that they, too, will be commencing the assembly of VTRs in Scotland and East Anglia, respectively, during 1983. The European Commission has assured us that all VTR kits required by these ventures will be available under the the terms of the recent agreement.
My Department will continue to encourage these new ventures to increase both the scale of their operations and the United Kingdom's content of their products to the stage where we shall be able to export United Kingdom made VTRs.