§ Mr. David Watkinsasked the Secretary of State for Trade (1) if he will raise the United States steel court action against EEC remision of value added tax on exports of steel to the USA at the current General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations on tariff cutting;
(2) what talks he is having with other Common Market Governments and with the United States Government about the threat to EEC exports of seel to the USA represented by the United States steel court action against remission of value added tax.
§ Mr. MeacherWe are in close touch with our Community partners on this question. Both we and the Community as a whole have expressed to the US Administration our grave concern at the situation which could arise should the present appeal to the US Customs Court against the US Treasury decision be successful. We have said that we expect them to take any measures necessary to ensure that Community exports suffer no disruption. We would certainly wish to consider with our Community partners the possibility of raising the matter formally in the GATT if the Customs Court decides against the US Treasury. The Community is supporting the Japanese complaint to the GATT Council about action which the US has taken in relation to imports of consumer electronic products from Japan following a ruling of the Customs Court relating to remission of a Japanese commodity tax. It is also 355W raising the US countervailing law in the GATT multilateral trade negotiations.
§ Mr. David Watkinsasked the Secretary of State for Trade what is the amount of United Kingdom exports of steel to the USA which is subject to an EEC VAT rebate; and what proportion of total steel exports it represents.
Mr. Meacher: Steel exports to the USA are zero rated under United Kingdom VAT provisions, but there is no special EEC VAT rebate. 121,000 metric tons of ingots, semi-finished and finished steel were exported to the United States in the first four months of this year, amounting to 9.5 per cent. of total steel exports.