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PA
Duncan Slater 27
30 May 1990
PS/PUS
Mr Bayne
Mr Carrick
COMED
(21)
/that
Mr Hughes, AMD
LAST PAPER
HKC 175 /
JEIVED
)!
GENERAL COUNCIL OF BRITISH SHIPPING: CALL ON THE PUS BY SIR JEFFREY STIRLING
1.
1990
Sir Jeffrey Stirling, the Chairman of P&O and the new President of the General Council of British Shipping, called on the PUS this morning.
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2. Sir Jeffrey's main purpose was to discuss whether the FCO wished to be represented on the new Government/Industry Joint Working Party to look at the state of the British shipping industry. Sir Jeffrey began by explaining the genesis of the Working Party. He said that ship owners had for some time been drawing the Government's attention to the decline in the tonnage under the British flag. They had found that in some parts of
the Government (notably the Treasury) views had been agnostic: if the ownership remained in the UK and the profits were remitted here, did it matter what flags the ships flew? Sir Jeffrey commented/this view seemed now to be losing ground; it was more generally realised that a healthy national shipping industry was an important asset with beneficial effects for the rest of the economy. But he had thought it useful to have a Working Party which would look at the British shipping industry across the board and consider what could be done to improve its competitiveness. (As an example of the sort of problem which ought to be removed, Sir Jeffrey quoted the example of a ship which P&O had recently had built in France; the company had wanted it to sail under the British flag but had discovered this would cost about £3 million since much of its equipment, including a state-of-the- art fire extinguisher system, was not recognised by the DTI and would have to be replaced.) Sir Jeffrey went on to say that
a number of directly concerned Government Departments-e.g. the Department of Transport, the MOD, Treasury, etc - would be represented on the Committee; would the FCO like to be represented also?
3.
The PUS replied that the FCO would be glad to join the Working Party when it was dealing with subjects of interest to
These subjects included, for example, EC aspects,
us.
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