Charge of Import Deposits

Part of Clause 1 – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 3 December 1968.

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Photo of Mr Michael Alison Mr Michael Alison , Barkston Ash 12:00, 3 December 1968

I want to support what my hon. Friend the Member for Oswestry (Mr. Biffen) has said. The Government are following the familiar pattern of the villain of Scripture, who digged a pit, and then fell into it. One of the more sinister reasons why our E.F.T.A. partners are not making the running in pointing out the iniquity of this Bill, but are leaving it to the Conservative Opposition, is precisely that they are learning from the expert cracksmen how to open the safe themselves.

Under the E.F.T.A. Convention, we have an extremely good bargain. I do not know whether the President of the Board of Trade has seen the article in last week's British Industry Weekly, headed, "Britain's £100 Million E.F.T.A. Bonus." It related to the study, which I believe will be published in January next year, of how trade among the E.F.T.A. partners has surged up as a result of the agreement, and above all of how the principal beneficiary, of all the E.F.T.A. partners, of that surging trade created through the Free Trade Area has been the United Kingdom.

The actual figures are that our own bonus, the actual increase in British exports up to 1965 alone as a result of our membership of E.F.T.A. has been £100 million, against an increase in imports of only £25 million. The list given in the article of various commodities traded among the E.F.T.A. partners gives repeated evidence that Britain has nearly always done the best. One example is plastics, in which Britain has made a 5 per cent. gain in exports, having benefited most with Norway. In electrical machinery, Britain and Sweden have benefited most, with Britain's exports up and imports static in relation to E.F.T.A.. In the textile trade, Britain has benefited most in absolute terms. In motor cars, British exports' share of the E.F.T.A. market have risen from 12 per cent. to 18 per cent. between 1959 and 1966. In clothing, again Britain is the major beneficiary, along with Sweden.

Do the Government really believe that our E.F.T.A. partners, many of whom have unfavourable balances with us, will be anything but delighted at having handed to them a perfect protectionist instrument which Her Majesty's Government have fashioned for them? The Government have demonstrated to the whole world that the change is of the most pristine purity in terms of the Convention and of our moral obligation to E.F.T.A. Of course they keep quiet—they only want the Government to show them that what they do is perfectly reasonable, and then they can do the same. The more the Government establish that what they do is entirely fair, reasonable moral and legal, the more cause there is for fear.

The slightest deliberalisation of trade must be a nightmare to the President of the Board of Trade, because he knows that Mr. Catherwood has argued most cogently that we have a greater interest than probably any other country in trade liberalisation. We now have a Republican Government in America; France is in difficulty; there may be difficulties for Germany from Japanese competition, we have the present international monetary situation. The whole trend is towards deliberalising world trade, yet here is Britain, which has most to lose, playing this particular card at this moment. Nothing could be more lunatic—and, above all, to do it to our E.F.T.A. partners, who have everything to gain by using this instrument against us—