UK Steel Industry

Debate between Angela Eagle and Richard Fuller

Tuesday 12th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Ms Eagle]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I hope that the Secretary of State is taking note.

The loss of our steel industry would worsen our already record-breaking trade deficit, which is now the worst since 1948. The value of the goods and services we import now exceeds the value of those that we export by £32.7 billion. The loss of steel and our current exports of steel combined with the need to import far more steel would make this barely sustainable record deficit even worse.

Beyond the economic cost, there would also be an intolerable social cost. There are 15,000 jobs directly at stake in the industry and a further 25,000 jobs at stake in the wider supply chain. These are the kind of high-skill, high-paid jobs of which we need to see more. The end of steelmaking in the UK would be devastating for 40,000 workers and their communities. Some people have highlighted the potential costs of intervening to save the steel industry, but I believe the costs of letting steel fail are far greater.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

I do not want to pre-empt what the hon. Lady may say, but will she confirm that it is the policy of Her Majesty’s Opposition that the steel industry should be nationalised, and should remain in public hands until it can successfully go back into private hands?

[Ms Eagle]

What needs to be done is what is necessary to preserve, restructure and ensure the survival of our steel industry for the future. That is the Government’s job. We will be as supportive as we can—I shall set out some parameters later in my speech—but this is about the Government getting their act in order. The Opposition are holding the Government to account for their actions, rather than just their words. That is what this debate is about.

UK Steel Industry

Debate between Angela Eagle and Richard Fuller

Monday 29th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Ms Eagle]

I am coming to that later in my remarks, but my hon. Friend is exactly right: all energy-intensive industries are affected, and ceramics is one of them.

If they are accurate, I welcome the media reports from today’s European Union Competitiveness Council, which appears to have agreed that the Commission should accelerate anti-dumping action. I look forward to much more detail from the Secretary of State when he responds to the debate on what that will mean in practice. Until then, we must judge the Government on their actions to date.

Our motion calls on the Government to stop blocking reform of EU trade defence instruments, which would enable defensive tariffs to be imposed much more quickly and at a level that would actually prevent imports of unfairly traded steel products from China. The Government should support the scrapping of the lesser duty rule, which is preventing tariffs from being set at a level that will actually deal with the problem. After months of agitation and a massive increase in Chinese imports, especially to the UK, the European Union has finally set its tariff on a particular product—Chinese rebar—between 9.2% and 13%. Meanwhile, the USA has introduced defensive tariffs of 66%, and they were operating 45 days after the start of its investigation. To work, tariffs have to be high enough to deal with the problem—the EU tariffs are not.

It is important to make it crystal clear that we are objecting to blatant and unfair dumping, not to free trade, which the Opposition support.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

I am interested in what the hon. Lady is saying, but does she not feel the chill wind of the 1930s, which saw the infringement of free trade as people eagerly moved to impose tariffs? Over the last 10 years, China’s share of world trade in steel has grown from 30% to more than 50%, so whatever the tariff, there will be further calls for higher tariffs, with consequential disadvantages for all.

[Ms Eagle]

I was trying to make it very clear that we are talking about unfair trade—dumping. We are not talking about fair trade.

[Ms Eagle]

My hon. Friend is exactly right: we have to distinguish between free trade, fair trade and unfair trade, and what we face with Chinese steel imports is clearly unfair. Dumping is unfair, and it is threatening the very existence of the UK steel industry. Everyone in the House knows that once steel facilities have gone, they cannot easily be put back. We have to protect our industry’s capacity to exist, and perhaps to do better in future, when world conditions have changed. If we do not bear that in mind, we will lose the lot, and we will regret it.

[Richard Fuller]

The hon. Lady will find that there is a lot of understanding across the House for the point she makes. My point is just that, over the past 20 or 30 years, we have become reliant on China producing many things, and the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (Ruth Smeeth) mentioned ceramics. My concern—perhaps the hon. Member for Wallasey (Ms Eagle) can address this—is about where we make the distinction in terms of the tariffs we impose. Does she not have the slightest concern that a series of such issues may come up in sector after sector because of the growing reliance over the last few years on Chinese exports?

[Ms Eagle]

We need to have an industrial strategy, and we have to ensure that imports into this country are appropriately priced and fairly traded.

Enterprise Bill [Lords]

Debate between Angela Eagle and Richard Fuller

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Ms Eagle]

The hon. Gentleman mentions the apprenticeship levy, but it will have to be paid by the public sector, which is being squeezed very hard by Government cuts, so there is no explanation of where the money will come from—if the hon. Gentleman has one, he can stand up and give it to the House now. [Interruption.] Well, the Bill amends the Industrial Development Act 1982 in an entirely sensible but minor way, and it tinkers at the edges of non-domestic rates, when what we probably need is major reform of the workings of the valuation office and, indeed, of the entire business rates system.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

I am intrigued by what the hon. Lady has said about the IDA change, which will allow the Government to increase the amount they can spend without parliamentary oversight from £10 million to £30 million. Does she think this is a good time, with public spending under control, to give that authority to the Government without parliamentary scrutiny?

[Ms Eagle]

This is a minor change, which Opposition Members will support, simply because it updates the Act. It does not actually allow the Government to spend any more in real terms than the Act did—it just updates the Act to reflect inflation since the Act was passed. If it went a lot further, Parliament would, of course, want to keep a closer eye on this, but this is such a minor change, although it is welcome, that Opposition Members do not feel we need to oppose it.

--- Later in debate ---

[Richard Fuller]

I am interested in the hon. Lady’s comment about the inflation increase. She indicated that the Opposition would favour a more substantial increase in the Government’s opportunities to use money under the IDA. Will she explain a bit further what the Labour party’s position on that would be? If she describes what the Government are doing as minor, what does she have in mind?

[Ms Eagle]

The changes to the Act are minor, simply because they restore in real terms the original import of the Act—that minor change merely brings the Act up to date. There is no reason why any Opposition Member should worry about that change. It is aimed at a part of the rural broadband roll-out that is very important for a lot of people in rural areas, so it is wholly acceptable, certainly to the Opposition, although I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman is opposing his own Front Benchers on this issue.