§ Ms. Janet AndersonTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will introduce measures to ban the importation of cloth treated with pentachlorophenol.
§ Mr. NeedhamThe Government are conscious of the threat posed to the environment by the use of pentachlorophenols (PCPs) in textile production. However, I do not believe that it would be appropriate to ban imports of cloth treated in this way since there are at present no completely adequate substitutes for PCPs in protecting certain textiles from rotting. The detection of treated cloth at its port of entry would in any case be almost impossible. Nor are we generally able to discriminate against imports arriving from other member states of the European Community.