TNAG-0303-FCO40-339-Effects-of-tariffs-on-imports-of-cotton-textiles-to-UK-from--1971 — Page 57

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Cotton Textile Industry 29 NOVEMBER 1971 [MR. MCCANN.]

ask for tariffs? It asked for tariffs and quotas to run alongside each other for an experimental period, to discover which was best for it.

11.57 p.m.

The Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Mr. Anthony Grant): I congratulate the hon. Member for Oldham, East (Mr. Lamond) on raising this important subject and on the way in which he has presented it. I am sorry that in a half-hour Adjournment debate there is not sufficient time for more hon. Members to participate, because I know how strongly they feel. However, I believe that there will be other oppor- tunities, perhaps even this week, to express a view.

We all recognise that the cotton and allied textile industry has for many years been going through a period of difficult readjustment. It is not alone in this; other industries in this country are facing similar problems and the tex- tile industries of other industrial coun- tries have many of the same difficulties as Lancashire.

Successive Governments of both parties have striven to help the industry and its workers, to adapt to changing national and world conditions. I would like to make it clear that this Government wish to see an industry that is strong, viable and internationally competitive.

To this end, we have endorsed the policy adopted by the previous Govern- ment in July, 1969. The policy was based on the recommendations in a two-year Productivity and Efficiency Study by the industry's own Textile Council, which set out a programme for restructuring the industry into an entity that would be fully competitive by European standards by 1975. The two principal measures in the recommendations were the imposition of a tariff on cotton textiles imported from the Commonwealth Preference Area and further efforts by the industry itself to re-equip and move to multi-shift work- ing with an associated higher wage structure.

This House will have an opportunity shortly to debate the Order introducing a tariff on Commonwealth cotton textiles on 1st January next.

I acknowledge with satisfaction the successful efforts which many firms in

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Cotton Textile Industry Lancashire, big, medium and small, have made to increase their competitiveness by installing new plant, by streamlining their organisation and management, by improving design, by better marketing and in many other ways. I also acknow- ledge the whole-hearted support which these efforts have received from the textile unions. Labour relations in this industry achieved by good leadership on both are a shining example of what can be sides, which underlines the importance of appreciating how the other side views common problems.

It was fundamental to the Textile Council Report-which was accepted by most of the industry's leadership as well as, as I said, by both the previous Gov- ernment and this one-that numbers of mills and workers would continue to fall petitive industry were to be achieved. if the objective of a trimmed-down com- Specifically, the Council forecast that the weaving and finishing would fall from numbers employed in spinning, doubling,

125,000 to about 75,000 between 1968 and 1975, and the number of mills would fall from 715 to about 300. The Council also recognised that the pattern of pro- duction would have to change, notably that knitted fabrics would develop more rapidly than the output of traditional woven cloth.

In a sense, it is premature to judge the results of this policy when one major element-the new tariff-is only about to be implemented. The Labour Govern- ment decided to give both the industry and overseas suppliers plenty of time to prepare for the change. They also

decided that when the new tariff came in on 1st January, 1972, the existing system of quantitative restrictions on cotton tex- tile imports from low-cost suppliers should end.

Mr. Dan Jones: It should be recorded that the industry is disputing that evidence.

Mr. Grant: Be that as it may, this, as I understand it, was what the previous Government decided to do.

Those who predict disaster for Lanca- shire should keep things in perspective. Currently, employment in the cotton and allied textile industry is about 98,000, just about on the curve forecast by the Textile Council. The labour force in textiles in the textile belt of Lancashire