§ Mr. Moateasked the Secretary of State for Trade how many anti-dumping measures have been instituted in response to requests from United Kingdom interests since the EEC assumed the relevant responsibilities if he will divide the answer into separate categories for the principal products; and how this compares with previous years.
§ Mr. MeacherSince 1 July 1977, when responsibility for taking action on dumping affecting United Kingdom interests passed to the EEC Commission, it has announced, in addition to the special measures affecting steel, anti-dumping measures covering 11 products. These are divided into the following categories:
Chemical … … 2 Paper products … … 2 Timber products … … 2 Basic metals … … 1 Mechanical appliances … … 2 Electrical equipment … … 2 Action is taken by the Commission in defence of the interests of European producers as a whole—or a major proportion of them. In one chemical case—rosin—and one mechanical appliance case—hole punching machines—the United Kingdom industries constituted the major proportion of the Community industry and would, thus, have been 745W directly responsible for the initiation of anti-dumping measures by the Community. Altogether United Kingdom industries were involved in 10 of the applications listed above.
It is not possible to make a direct comparison with previous years when the United Kingdom was responsible for taking anti-dumping action on its own account, but on average in the years between 1971 and 1976 we instituted antidumping measures on seven products per year.