Oral Answers to Questions — Trade and Commerce – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18 April 1957.
asked the President of the Board of Trade what discussions he has had with the motor car manufacturers about the shortage of steel sheet which they anticipate will arise later in the year.
None, Sir. The availability of future supplies of sheet steel is a matter for discussion by the motor industry with the sheet steel producers and with the Iron and Steel Board.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary suggest to his right hon. Friend that, before permission is given to the motor car industry to import sheet steel, in view of the serious position of our gold and dollar reserves, there should be an insistence on a definite proportion of the increase of production going to exports?
My right hon. Friend is aware of that Socialist proposal, but we do not think it would be wise to act upon it.
Does that mean that the Government are prepared to see a situation similar to that which occurred in 1955 and the early part of 1956, in which the increasing cost of steel imports was far greater than the exports of the motor car industry which caused them?
It is not necessarily the case that the 1955 situation will repeat itself.