TNAG-0872-FCO40-1082-Legislation-for-employment-in-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 21

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71979

NO. 51.

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Negotiations

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Multilateral Trade

29 JUNE 1979

[Mr. Cryer.] They will turn at some stage. They cannot do otherwise, because the conse- quences of their policies will be the loss of thousands of jobs and the decline of industry.

I turn to the question of the Govern- ment's procurement code. The Minister says that this will be more relaxed and that it will allow a wider degree of ten dering by international bodies. Once again in the EEC we are conforming to

the rules when others do not. I tabled a question about the number of advertise- ments that we had inserted over a certain period. I discovered that we had adver- tised 250 contracts while the total from the EEC membership was about a dozen. That is absurd. Why do we have to go through that rigorous procedure when other member States do not? Why should we do that when we are not operating at parity, when West Germany and France have a more buoyant economy? We open our doors to international tendering for our contracts but other EEC members do not. That is a matter that must be watched extremely carefully. I hope that we shall receive an assurance from the Government.

The Minister referred to selectivity and safeguard action against imports. I share the view of my right hon. Friend the Member for Lanarkshire, North (Mr. Smith) that probably nothing will happen in those vital areas.

One of the most sensitive issues during the renegotiation of the multi-fibre agrce- ment was that the textile industry faced sudden massive imports from countries which were not foreseen to be sources of textile products. There was enormous disruption, which led to job losses.

I know that the Department of Trade is dominated by free-traders to the vir- tual exclusion of all else. They think that we should adhere to the philosophy of free trade, but it should not be adhered to at the expense of jobs. Those who have comfortable, well-paid jobs with index- linked pension schemes should bear in mind that disruption caused by cheap imports means the loss of jobs in the United Kingdom. It means the closure of mills and factories. Therefore, we should press strongly for selectivity and the pos- sibility of a safeguard clause against a disruptive level of imports that will threaten jobs and industry.

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I remind the House of what can hap- pen. As a first step we may accept the introduction of imports. We have a res- ponsibility to the rest of the world and we want to ensure a reasonable level of trade. The introductory level may be 20 per cent, but it may climb, as it did with cotton yarn, to about 80 per cent, of the total United Kingdom market. If that happens, the United Kingdom industry diminishes, to a level at which it is no longer able to support research and dev- elopment organisations, and at which companies cannot maintain their own re- search and development programines. Therefore, the industry and the companies lose out.

However, the companies of the export- ing countries will carry out research and development work in either textile pro- ducts or manufacturing techniques. The result is that British industry falls behind yet again. We must ensure that suitable criteria arc agreed and that we have reserve powers of selectivity.

1 intervened in the Minister's speech to ask him about a social clause. That is frequently mentioned when discussing the Tokyo round. It was raised by both sides of the textile industry. The Minister said that negotiations had not yet finished and that the matter might well be discussed. Unlike some Conservative Members, I do not think that competition is the universal panacea. That belief is held by a diminish- ing number of Conservative Members which will become even smaller as time shows that it is a false premise.

When I talk to industrialists they say that they are prepared to face competition as long as it is fair. However, they now have to face unfair competition. We have employment protection and health and safety legislation. There are Acts on the Statute book that require that wages should be paid in cash and in full. The Truck Acts date from the nineteenth cen- tury. Some of the provisions of that legis- lation can be circumvented by some cm- ployers, but the fact remains that we have employment legislation which is designed to ensure that reasonable standards are enforced. These standards are often en- forced through the ILO Convention. I have compared the performance of Hong Kong with that of the United Kingdom, and it seems that Hong Kong put into effect 24 applications of the convention,