Steel Safeguards

Holly Mumby-Croft Excerpts

Wednesday 29th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for welcoming the statement and supporting the Government’s decision to extend the safeguards applying to these five categories of steel, but I do not agree with his claim that this has been done in a rush. The statement has been made today because the rollover is to take place on 1 July, and it was therefore appropriate to make an announcement this week.

The right hon. Gentleman made an interesting point about the EU’s choice to maintain the safeguards after it was found not to be in breach of the rules. I was unable to be present at the Select Committee this morning—frustratingly—because I was indeed dealing with the international part of these processes as much I could. I will continue to do so over the next few days in order to ensure that our WTO partners and friends understand the reasons for my decision, which I am pleased to hear is supported by the right hon. Gentleman and the Labour party. Obviously we stand ready to take up any concerns that WTO members may have about the decision, but I am certain that it is the right decision, enabling us to avoid as much harm or risk of injury to our steel producers as we can.

The TRA, as an independent organisation, has done an excellent job in examining the challenges faced by the industry. It is also working apace on many issues brought to it by British companies that have concerns, and I am pleased to see it up and running on a daily basis. I meet its representatives regularly, but its submissions to me are made independently, which allows me to make my decisions more broadly.

[Holly Mumby-Croft (Scunthorpe) (Con)]

Steel is of course a strategic industry, and it is worth remembering that no one in the House or the country can go a single day without needing to use some. I thank my right hon. Friend and the Prime Minister for their sensible approach to this issue. They have stood behind steel jobs in Scunthorpe, and they have ensured that we have the right steel safeguards, just like every other country. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is beyond any doubt that the future of the UK steel industry is safest under a Conservative Government?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

My hon. Friend is genuinely an incredible champion for her constituency, and indeed for her steel constituents. I can tell the House that a week does not go by without her appearing to remind me of the importance of the Scunthorpe steelworks, and that is a fantastic consideration. As a Conservative MP, she never stops doing that, and her voice has been well heard as we have reached these decisions. As she says, we do not spend a day without using steel—I had never thought about that. It is an integral part of our day-to-day lives, and in all the investments we are making through the green revolution and the transport revolutions, steel is at the core of all that. I very much hope that this decision will ensure stability and a reduction in the risk of injury to our fantastic steel producers in Scunthorpe.

Free Trade Agreement: New Zealand

Holly Mumby-Croft Excerpts

Thursday 21st October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

My ministerial colleagues and I have regular discussions with our counterparts in all the devolved nations, and I know that such conversations went on with Ministers yesterday to really get a sense of, and to encourage, the exciting opportunities that now exist with the agreement in principle. As we move from this stage to finalisation—this is where it gets complicated, with pages and pages of legal text, and lawyers are required—there will be refinement to ensure that all those nations have their concerns and, indeed, the important issues that they want raised, crystallised into the final deal.

[Holly Mumby-Croft (Scunthorpe) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for her work on the agreement, and for the particularly good news about sauvignon blanc. Will she please say a little more about the effect on manufacturing businesses and jobs, particularly in the north of England? What support may be available for those businesses that want to take advantage of the agreement and export to New Zealand?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

I think many of us will be excited at the reduced price, potentially, of our glass of New Zealand wine of an evening. This goes in both directions. We will want to champion the opportunities for small businesses across our constituencies, and the Department is there to support and guide. We now have not only trade and investment hubs here in the UK but both trade commissioners and great trade envoys. I know that they will help us to champion the great businesses we have here to ensure that they are known and loved, and become part of the landscape of New Zealand’s markets.

Protecting Britain’s Steel Industry

Holly Mumby-Croft Excerpts

Monday 21st June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Holly Mumby-Croft (Scunthorpe) (Con) [V]]

I am aware that many learned colleagues wish to speak this evening, so I will get straight to the point and will keep my remarks specific to the TRA safeguards issue.

As colleagues will know, my right hon. Friend the International Trade Secretary will decide whether to accept the Trade Remedies Authority’s recommendations on steel safeguards. Its recommendations are to remove safeguard protections for almost half of UK steel product categories. As it stands, if she does not accept that recommendation, all safeguard protections will expire by the end of this month, and I accept that her hands are somewhat tied in that regard.

I have put on record my opposition to the TRA’s preliminary recommendations in pretty frank terms, and many colleagues have spoken about the issue in Parliament, fed their views back to the TRA and raised the issue with the Department for International Trade. Despite this extensive feedback, a week later the TRA’s final recommendations still overlooked many of the arguments that were made on both sides of the House—namely, that it did not make a sufficiently industry-led assessment, that it did not use International Steel Statistics Bureau data but used data from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs instead, and that it did not sufficiently consider the impact of recent events on the UK steel industry. Reading the final recommendations, it is clear that the TRA is to some degree a hostage of the rigid terms set out in the trade remedies regulations. It is not forward-looking in its assessments and, regrettably, some decisions were made despite the data being insufficient.

I am sure that many across the House will agree that decisions that affect the lives and livelihoods of our constituents cannot be made in that way, and that we now need further proactive solutions to support the steel industry. We must look at whether reform of the Trade Secretary’s powers is required to allow safeguard assessments to be conducted in part by Ministers, who have an understanding of the bigger picture, who are in a position to make decisions about the trade-offs and who are accountable for their decision making. I thank my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister for his commitment to this issue and for agreeing to meet me. That will be a welcome discussion, and I urge the Government to explore how we can make World Trade Organisation-compliant changes in legislation to allow the Trade Secretary the option to take back control and consider whether it is legally possible to extend our existing safeguards. Speaking plainly, it is clear to me that when the EU is set to keep all 19 of its steel safeguards and we are set to keep only 10, that risks putting us at a disadvantage.

I was born in Scunthorpe, and I was there in 2018 and 2019 when the steelworks were at huge risk. I saw at first hand how much effort and funding the Conservative Government put in place to support jobs, and my words tonight are not a comment on the Government’s previous support for steel; they are a comment on the TRA’s recommendations and on how we react to them. They are a plain ask of the Government to help the steel industry again, because I believe that their instinct is to support the steel industry. No one in this country can go a single day without steel. It is a special case: it is a foundation industry and it affects my constituents, and I will work with right hon. and hon. Members from across the House to fight for the interests of steelworkers in Scunthorpe.