§ Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Secretary of State for Trade what assessment he has made of the man-made fibre industry sector working party report published in November 1981; and, in particular, of its judgment that the industry in the United Kingdom is being severely adversely affected by an acceleration of dumped or subsidised imports, particularly from the United States of America, by unfair subsidies to the industry elsewhere within the European Economic Community, and by the inadequacy of the present General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade rules on anti-dumping.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 2 March 1982, c. 74.]: Full United Kingdom statistics are not yet available but there is clear evidence of a decrease in imports of man-made fibres from the United States in 1981.
The report of the sector working party indicates that the European Commission has actively pursued all well-founded complaints of dumping by United States or other non-Community suppliers presented to it by the Community's man-made fibre industry. The Community's anti-dumping legislation is based on the GATT code agreed in the multilateral trade negotiations; we believe that the code represents the best achievable balance between the need to protect industry from unfair trade and the need to protect exporters from unduly protectionist action by others.
Within the Community the Commission, which administers the competition rules of the Treaty of Rome on behalf of the Community as a whole, needs firm evidence of possible treaty breaches before action can be taken. If the hon. Member or the United Kingdom industry has any evidence that might assist Commission investigations, my Department would be happy to help with its presentation.