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cropper's column

19th November 1971
Page 58
Page 58, 19th November 1971 — cropper's column
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

International permits

• Whose fault is it that there is this desperate shortage of international permits? The usual Aunt Sally for all such taunts is the Government. In this case, it is not the British Government, but the governments abroad.

Each country, as a sovereign state. is entitled to dictate the conditions under which it will allow foreign vehicles to enter its territory.

This basically has nothing to do with the entry of goods and freight, which is primarily customs control. It is control of the vehicles themselves, and we are here concerned with lorries. Foreign governments find themselves having to consider this matter under the following heads: the extent to which it is desirable to let vehicles in at all, the charges to be levied against those vehicles, and the degree to which their own nationals should participate in the transport business. or possibly might even be given some sort of preference.

The dislike of lorries is felt by the public on the Continent as much as in Britain and finds expression in as many, or even more, ways. This dislike is even more vehement towards foreign lorries, which they see as cluttering their streets. polluting the atmosphere and even perhaps causing accidents. Yet worse still from their viewpoint is the situation (which we don't really experience here) when the vehicles are merely making a transit movement across the territory to a further country.

Britain's trade has veered more and more towards Europe in the past decade. With the entry into the Common Market, it is not unreasonable to anticipate a doubling of that direction of trade within the next five years. Yet geographically Britain sits at the edge and cannot avoid the need for much of its trade to transverse the near Continental states.

Thus France is a key country. It allowed 17,000 permits for British hauliers for the year of 1971 and it considered this a generous gesture. As a matter of internal administration. the British Government has appointed the Northern Area Licensing Authority at Newcastle-on-Tyne as the issuing agency. He has already issued the whole supply for 1971 and still receives applications, which he has to refuse. These are permits for lorries to enter French territory, and if the French Government says the British can only have 17,000 for 1971, what else can be done at administrative level?

As this 17,000 includes transit permits, the restriction affects British trade with more distant countries. Because of the nonavailability of additional permits this year, I know of one flow of British exports to Switzerland to the tune of some £200.000 per month which is in jeopardy. In its own self-interest, the French Government can hardly be expected to feel much concern about that. The British Government is fully aware of the disastrous consequences for our trade and exports. A new round of discussions with the French transport officials is taking place in London during November. They will be strongly pressed to allow an uplift and there are certain arguments for claiming that this should be a 20 per cent increase. But the French have been highly resistant to all persuasion in the past, and this attitude may well not be found to be changed.

Ralph Cropper


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