Oral Answers to Questions — Trade and Commerce – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 28 November 1961.
asked the President of the Board of Trade what was the aggregrate value c.i.f. of United Kingdom imports of timber and timber products, excluding finished manufactured goods, during twelve months ended 30th September, 1961, and the aggregate amount of United Kingdom import duty charged on such imports; by how much per cent. and in value such import duty will be reduced as a result of forthcoming lowering of tariffs among countries which are General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade signatories; what loss of revenue is thereby entailed; and to what extent it is the policy of Her Majesty's Government to eliminate timber tariffs for the purpose of lowering building costs in Great Britain and assisting British exports by reduced packaging costs.
The value of the imports was £186 million. Import duty charged in the year ending 31st July, 1961, was a little over £2 million. The G.A.T.T. negotiations are confidential, so I cannot forecast results. It is not the policy of Her Majesty's Government to initiate changes in the tariff, apart from those made as a result of international negotiations, but we are always ready to consider applications for such changes from representative domestic interests.
Would my hon. Friend bear in mind that timber is the largest single commodity import, in value, of the United Kingdom, and that as practically all the timber that we bring in is applied either to house building or to the packaging of British exports, it is a wholly out-of-date and fallacious policy to place an import duty upon it? Would not my hon. Friend undertake to examine the timber tariffs carefully and individually with a view to securing their elimination?
But the timber used for the purposes mentioned by my hon. Friend is softwood, the value of the tariffs on which is under a half of 1 per cent., so it cannot enter significantly into costs. The hardwoods which are imported come to a large extent from the Commonwealth and enter duty-free.