HC Deb 17 January 1991 vol 183 cc591-2W
Mr. Oppenheim

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many items or products are subject to EC anti-dumping duties, import quotas, secret or otherwise, or price maintenance agreements, including those concluded as a result of anti-dumping investigations; and if he will list the products and items concerned, together with an estimate of the effect on the price of these products.

Mr. Sainsbury

At 31 December 1990 definitive anti-dumping remedies were in force on a total of 56 products imported into the European Community from certain exporting countries. A further 5 products are currently subject to provisional anti-dumping duties imposed by the Commission pending a definitive decision by the Council of Ministers. I have placed in the Library of the House a list of all remedies in force on 31 December. This shows not only duties but undertakings given by exporters to observe minimum price levels.

All products requiring an individual licence for import into the United Kingdom are listed in the open general import licence of 4 December 1987, as amended, which is published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office. The great majority of products subject to quantitative restrictions are textile and clothing products covered by the Multi-Fibre Arrangement. In addition the United Kingdom maintains quotas on bananas from the dollar area and on a variety of products from the remaining state trading countries. I have placed in the Library of the House notice to importers No. 2291 of 3 January which sets out the 1991 quota levels for restricted textiles and Notice to Importers No. 2293 of the same date which gives the provisional 1991 arrangements for the state trading area.

In addition a number of products are subject under Community regulations to surveillance licensing. This does not amount to a quantitative restriction but can allow voluntary restraint arrangements negotiated or accepted by the Commission to be monitored. Such arrangements cover certain textile and clothing products imported from Egypt, Malta, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey, most types of footwear from Korea and Taiwan and certain iron and steel products from (in 1990) Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Brazil. (This in addition to the United Kingdom quota on iron and steel products from the USSR). Iron and steel products from all sources are subject to surveillance licensing so that a check can be made on the prices at which the products are traded.

There are no official restrictions on the import of motor vehicles but an inter-industry voluntary restraint arrangement limits the share of the United Kingdom market taken by exports from Japan.

Anti-dumping remedies are designed to raise the price of dumped products by an amount which reflects either the dumping margin or the margin of injury suffered by EC industry whichever is the lower. The rates of anti-dumping duty applied to each product at the point of import are contained in the list I have placed in the Library. Whether the full effect is felt at retail level will depend on the extent to which margins are adjusted after the point of import.

The exact effect of quota restrictions is very difficult to estimate but those set at levels that effectively restrict trade can be expected to raise prices to the consumer. A number of academic studies have attempted to estimate the price effects in the main sectors. Professor Silberston of Imperial College for instance estimated in 1989 that the ending of the multi-fibre arrangement would lead to a fall of 8 per cent. in average import prices of clothing. In a 1988 study of the cars VRA Professor Alistair Smith of Sussex university estimated that it raised the price of Japanese cars in the United Kingdom by 7.5 per cent. There are no studies covering the whole of the United Kingdom's current restrictions. Estimates are particularly difficult to make where the situation can change from year to year or even more rapidly and earlier studies relating to eastern Europe are now out of date.