§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what assessment her Department has made of the Commission's calculations relating to the need for EU anti-dumping tariffs on unfinished textiles; [49629]
(2) what assessment she has made of the impact of the imposition of the anti-dumping tariffs on unfinished textiles on imports of grey cloth from (a) India, (b) Pakistan and (c) Germany; [49624]
(3) what estimate she has made of the impact on employment levels in the United Kingdom textile finishing industry of the EU's imposition of anti-dumping duties on finished textiles; [49620]
(4) what assessment she has made of the effects on the prices and output of finished textiles as a result of the EU anti-dumping tariff on unfinished textiles. [49623]
§ Mrs. RocheThe European Commission has imposed provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of most unbleached cotton fabrics from China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey for a period of six months from 8 April 1998 because, in its judgment, such imports were being dumped and causing injury to Community weavers and the Community interest calls for intervention to prevent such injury.
We, with a clear majority of Member States, advised strongly against this action.
In our judgment, any injury to EU weavers has resulted predominantly from increased imports from countries outside the EU that are not covered by the anti-dumping investigation and that are not subject to the provisional anti-dumping duties. Any benefit to EU weavers from any reduction in imports from countries that are subject to those duties and resulting from those duties is therefore likely to be temporary.
On the other hand, the imposition of anti-dumping duties, particularly if they are made definitive and remain in place for five years, is likely to result in some increase in the price of unbleached cotton fabrics, to the detriment of EU users of such cloth and, ultimately, of EU consumers. Moreover, manufacturers in the countries that are subject to those duties are thereby given a clear commercial incentive to bleach, 50W print or dye, and, perhaps, make up their cloth before export, to the detriment of the corresponding EU industries.
The likely overall effect is a reduction in production and employment in the EU textile industry.
While the likely direction of these effects is clear, reliable estimates of their scale cannot readily be made.
UK imports of unbleached cotton fabrics from Germany are modest, and unlikely to be greatly affected by the imposition of anti-dumping duties on the import into the EU of such cloth from certain countries outside the EU.
The Government will, for those reasons, vigorously oppose the imposition of definitive anti-dumping duties on unbleached cotton fabrics should the European Commission make such a proposal to the Council of Ministers.