Clause 3. — (Constitution and General Functions of Import Duties Board.)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18 December 1957.

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Photo of Mr David Eccles Mr David Eccles , Chippenham 12:00, 18 December 1957

I am very glad to hear it. I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention.

After having heard the debate, I had a talk with the representatives of industry and I told them that, as there was no question of going back to an outside body with power to recommend, I was disposed to accept the advice to drop the Import Duties Board altogether. There are, of course, a few business men who believe that the old system would still work, but they did not press their case and the general view of representatives of industry whom I saw was that it was better to have no board than to have a fact-finding board only.

I am not, however, prepared to drop the Import Duties Board without making some improvements in the methods by which the Board of Trade has handled these tariff applications since the war. There is general agreement that the present system is open to criticism on two points. The public, and not least the applicants for a change, do not receive enough information about the reasons why applications are accepted or turned down and, secondly, there is concern over the length of time that the Board of Trade has taken to reach a conclusion on applications. I should hesitate to recommend the Committee to drop Clause 3 unless I could propose some means of meeting those criticisms.