§ Mr. Ridleyasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, if he can now make a statement of the action he proposes to take following his talks with the 452W parties concerned about Lord Hirshfield's findings on the British Steel Corporation's pricing policies.
§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he will give a general direction to the British Steel Corporation, prior to 1st January, 1973, to increase its prices on end products of steel manufacture, pursuant to the recommendations of the Hirshfield Report.
§ Mr. Tom BoardmanI have today placed in the Library a copy of the conclusions and associated extracts of Lord Hirshfield's Report, submitted under Section 30 of the Iron and Steel Act 1967, and issued it to the Press. As I informed the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Mr. Varley) in reply to a Question on 26th October, I have accepted these conclusions, which are that the British Steel Corporation's pricing practices have been unfair to the complainants in relation to three of the four product groups which were the subject of complaint. In these cases—reinforcing bars, soft wire rods, and hot re-rolled bars and sections—Lord Hirshfield recommended an increase in the level of BSC prices so as to increase the margin between billet and billet-derived products.
In discussions I have had with the parties, the Corporation has told me that it fully subscribes to the principle that an undertaking should not abuse its dominant position in the market which underlies Section 30 of the Act and Article 66(7) of the Treaty of Paris to which it will shortly become subject. In the circumstances of the present prices standstill, it would be inappropriate for me to direct the Corporation to give effect to Lord Hirshfield's recommendations. But the Corporation has agreed that it will, within the framework of the ECSC system and as soon as price adjustments can properly be made in the light of the Government's counter - inflationary measures, take account of such recommendations in reviewing the level of its prices.
Lord Hirshfield has made a number of recommendations outside the main stream of his Report on the questions of rationalisation and the appropriateness of BSC's involvement in certain products. These are matters to which I am giving separate consideration.