§ Mr. Woolmerasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) in the light of his answer to the hon. Member for Batley and Morley on 8 February, whether he has formally, or informally, asked any textile or clothing trade association, economic development council, or trades union, to carry out a detailed assessment of the implications of the accession of Greece, Spain and Portugal to the European Community; and, if not, if he will request such an assessment to be carried out, and publish details of the timetable to which such assessments should be completed;
(2) what progress has been made by his Department and by the European Commission towards improving, and providing comparable production, employment, external trade and internal demand statistics on the wool textile and clothing industries of each European Economic Community member State; whether it is planned that a quarterly statement at the European level will be issued; and if the European Commission has yet issued a consultative document on this matter;
(3) what view the Government have taken towards the European Commission's draft instrument on Community aid 685W for industrial restructuring and conversion in the shipbuilding and textile industries; and if he will lend his support to the view that the natural fibre wool textile industry should be included in the aid scheme in his discussions within the Council of Ministers;
(4) whether the European Commission has yet reached a decision on the recently completed study by Kurt Salmon and Associates on apparel assembly techniques; if the Government and industry associations will be consulted on that report; and if he will give details of any other research studies initiated by the Commission on wool textiles and clothing since January 1979.
§ Mr. David MitchellI shall reply to the hon. Member as soon as possible.