HC Deb 27 July 1977 vol 936 cc221-2W
Mr. Hoyle

asked the Secretary of State for Trade, in view of the sale in Japan at £20,000 of a Jaguar car costing £9,000 in Great Britain, what steps he is taking to seek to reduce the non-tariff barriers operated by the Japanese against British goods; what he is doing by means of discussion to reduce the technical barriers operated by Japan against British cars such as the regulation laying down a necessity for three centimetres of unobscured deflector glass; and what discussions are taking place to increase the number of cars sold to Japan.

Mr. Meacher,

pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 26th July 1977; Vol. 936, c. 156], gave the following information

As a result of representations which we and the EEC Commission have been making to the Japanese authorities to urge them to encourage increased imports

Relative Export Prices* Relative Export Profitability† Import Price Competitiveness‡
1970=100
1975 96.0 102.4 102.5
1976 95.0§ 97.6 95.1
1977—
1st quarter 97.3§ 95.6 96.3
2nd quarter 97.3§ 97.4 98.4
June 96.9§ 97.9 98.3
*UK Export Prices (manuf.).
Competitors Export Prices (manuf.)
†UK Wholesale Prices (manuf. excl. food).
UK Export Price (manuf.).
‡UK Wholesale Price (manuf. excl. food).
UK Import Price (fin. manuf.).
§ Estimates, subject to revision.

of industrial goods and to remove obstacles which affect our products including cars, the Japanese have delayed the application of new emission standards to foreign cars and are making arrangements to enable our cars to be tested to Japanese standards in Europe before shipment to Japan. When my right hon. Friend was in Japan in April he urged the Japanese to take further action to stimulate their imports of industrial goods from us and similar approaches were made in May by Vice-President Haferkamp on behalf of the EEC as a whole. I hope that Japan will respond to these approaches in a practical and effective way which would eliminate any over-rigid application of regulations of the sort which my hon. Friend refers to, and my Department is monitoring developments closely.