§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will estimate how many jobs will be created in the United Kingdom as a result of the proposed restrictions on imports of video tape recorders from Japan.
§ Mr. ButcherBy the end of this year there will be three manufacturers of video tape recorders in the United Kingdom. A joint venture with JVC of Japan commenced production at Newhaven in October 1982 and Mitsubishi and Sanyo announced during the recent visit of my right hon. Friend to Japan that they would commence production in Scotland and at Lowestoft respectively. These decisions were thus taken before the restraint agreement on exports of video tape recorders was negotiated by the European Community. The proposed restriction will no doubt encourage the above ventures to develop United Kingdom production with the creation of new jobs.