Nia Griffith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nia Griffith on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on the potential effect of Government policy towards reform of EU trade defence instruments on the steel industry in Wales.

Stephen Crabb

I have regular discussions with ministerial colleagues, including the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, where we discuss the challenges faced by the steel industry in Wales and what we need to do to address them.

We are strong supporters of effective trade defences to tackle unfair trade practices. There are already a number of ways in which the European Commission can tackle unfair trade where industry can provide the evidence to support such action, including ones before the damage is done through so-called ‘threat of injury’ cases.

We continue to press the Commission to consider ways of speeding up investigations. We recently wrote with specific proposals and are following up at both official and ministerial level.

We have also pushed hard for decisive action on individual trade defence investigations, such as voting to take action on seamless pipes and tubes and on wire rod, and for an investigation into rebar.