For better or for worse
Page 17
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"There will be ample opportunities for Britain's transport industry in Europe, provided that we are on our toes to take advantage of them,'" said the DoE's deputy secretary for transport industries, Mr T. L. Beagley, in the Henry Spurrier Memorial Lecture last month. The EEC Council's subsequent derisory allocation of only 99 Community haulage permits to Britain put the matter of opportunity in a harsher, but perhaps more realistic, light. UK operators are on their toes — on the day of our entry to membership it was revealed that the permit allocation had been vastly oversubscribed by eager hauliers — but the transport industry cannot put its initiative and skill to good use if the politicians cramp its every move.
If we are in for a bout of horsetrading then we had better be good at it. As Mr Beagley rightly stressed in his paper, we should not be asked to turn the clock back to suit the least developed transport systems in the Community; nor can we let international trade be held back by inadequate transport arrangements, or allow the arguments for -harmonization first" to delay seriously the introduction of a more liberal transport policy. These are key political aims far more important in the long run than any immediate setbacks.
For industry as a whole the tariff barriers are crumbing and trade in both directions will swell. It is economic nonsense to throttle the means of moving those goods. Britain's transport negotiators are well aware of this but they went to Brussels last month with their hands tied and with nothing to offer, largely because the DoE's own "environmental" warnings had boomeranged in a great public outcry. Other member countries' men-in-the-street do not regard transport in this way; they are not quick to damage their own national interest.
We believe British entry to the EEC is very much for the better rather than the worse: but more important than all the details, for the proper transport outcome of our membership, is the removal of this great weight of national prejudice against the lorry. This is an unfair burden for negotiators and transport operators to carry into this great new market.