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Tariffs

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what position he will be taking in the forthcoming Doha trade talks in Hong Kong on reducing agricultural tariffs. [34149]

Ian Pearson: The Government's long-term goal is to abolish progressively all barriers to agricultural trade in the forms of both tariffs and quotas. The Government aims to take an important step towards this goal through the Doha development agenda.

The European Commission negotiates in the World Trade Organisation on behalf of the European Union's twenty-five member states, within the parameters of a negotiating mandate laid out in a succession of council conclusions. The current EU offer on agriculture, representing an average tariff reduction of 38.9 percent., is close to the edge of the mandate.
 
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Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the timetable is for the implementation of the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive; and what progress has been made to date on implementation. [34295]

Malcolm Wicks: The Government intend to make a policy announcement shortly on the implementation of this EU waste electrical and electronic equipment directive, including the timing of the WEEE regulations. The Government have been working towards practical implementation arrangements for the UK in extensive discussions with stakeholders. The Department has conducted three policy consultations in preparation of these regulations and development of the practical implementation arrangements. It has also consulted on proposals for cost recovery fees to cover the environment agencies' planned roles in relation to the registration of producers and monitoring of obligations, primarily producers' obligations, under the WEEE regulations. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and the Northern Ireland Office have conducted separate consultations on draft regulations to implement the directive's requirements for the permitting of WEEE treatment facilities. The Environment Agencies have jointly consulted on draft technical guidance for the treatment of WEEE.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list (a) (i) retailers and (ii) producers of electrical goods, (b) trade bodies and (c) associated organisations which the Department consulted during the (A) drafting and (B) implementation of the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive. [34296]

Malcolm Wicks: The Department has been in contact with the main affected sectors of business and other stakeholders both throughout the negotiation of the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive and since it was agreed and published in February 2003. Since the publication of the directive, the Department has conducted four public consultations in relation to its transposition and implementation, in March 2003, in November 2003, in July 2004 and in May 2005. There were 316 responses to the DTI's first consultation; 219 to the second; 225 to the third and 50 to the fourth. The lists of respondents to the first three consultations have been published on the DTI website at http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/ A summary of responses to the fourth consultation will be published on the website shortly.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps he is taking to ensure that implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive does not have an adverse impact on manufacturers of electrical goods and equipment, with particular reference to (a) profitability and (b) competitiveness. [34297]

Malcolm Wicks: The Government are committed to achieving an implementation of the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive which delivers its environmental objectives whilst safeguarding the competitiveness of UK manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment which falls within its scope.
 
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Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether his Department plans to meet retailers and producers of electrical goods and equipment to discuss their concerns over the implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. [34298]

Malcolm Wicks: The Department has had intensive discussions with retailers and producers over the arrangements for the implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. It expects to continue these.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the estimated recycling cost per electrical item is under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. [34299]

Malcolm Wicks: The Department has not published an estimated recycling cost per item. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive covers a wide range of electrical and electronic equipment, which is highly diverse in nature and composition.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what action his Department is taking to ensure that the cost of recycling items under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive is transparent to (a) businesses and (b) consumers. [34300]

Malcolm Wicks: The costs of recycling waste electrical and equipment will be a matter for producers in the contractual arrangements they make with operators of recycling and other recovery processes on a commercial basis. The Government will implement the provisions of article 8 of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive which provides that the costs of recycling of old waste equipment from private households may be shown to consumers at the point of sale for a transitional period after the directive's implementation.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what his Department's estimate is of the tonnage of waste electrical and electronic equipment goods which will be processed in each of the next five years; and what tonnage he estimates will be goods manufactured by companies that are no longer in business. [34301]

Malcolm Wicks: The Department has assumed, in its partial regulatory impact assessments for the UK implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (which may be viewed on the Department's website at http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/), that total arisings of waste equipment (WEEE) from UK private households will be in the region of 1 million tonnes in 2006, according to the estimates published by the Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling (ICER); and that the volume of WEEE arisings in the UK will rise by 4 per cent. each subsequent year, based on estimates in the European Commission's Explanatory Memorandum to the Directive. It is not know what proportion of this WEEE will result from equipment put onto the UK market by companies which have gone out of business.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Tradeand Industry what steps he will take to ensure that manufacturers of electrical goods and equipment
 
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will be allocated waste electrical and electronic equipment directive responsibilities on a fair and equitable basis. [34302]

Malcolm Wicks: The Department will be making an announcement shortly on the plans for the UK implementation of the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of the proportion of UK waste electrical and electronic equipment goods which will be recycled in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) other EU states and (c) elsewhere over each of the next five years. [34303]

Malcolm Wicks: The waste electrical and electronic equipment directive requires target levels of recycling to be achieved, which vary according to the different categories of waste equipment. The Department's partial Regulatory Impact Assessments for the UK implementation of the Directive, which may be viewed on the Department's website at http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/, take account of these targets. The Directive is to be reviewed in 2008 and its requirements, including the targets, are expected to be revised as a result.

The Department has made no estimates of levels of recycling in other member states; or for other countries outside the EU.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps are being taken to ensure that civic amenity sites are able to collect and separate waste electrical and electronic equipment for collection and transportation to recycling facilities. [34304]

Malcolm Wicks: The Government are facilitating the development of a retail compliance scheme, which, subject to Government approval, will offer funding to local authorities to upgrade their civic amenity sites to provide facilities for the collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment separately from the rest of the municipal waste stream.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps he is taking to ensure manufacturers have proper access to civic amenity sites and designated collection facilities to enable them to fulfil their recycling obligations under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. [34380]

Malcolm Wicks: The Department has facilitated discussions between representatives of local authorities and producers of a code of practice between site operators and producers collecting from the designated collection facilities for household WEEE.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps are being taken by his Department to inform consumers of the new recycling arrangements for waste electrical goods under the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive. [34381]

Malcolm Wicks: The Department expects that retailers will have obligations under the intended WEEE implementing regulations to inform consumers about the separate collection of WEEE for subsequent treatment and recycling; including about the local collection facilities and services available to them.
 
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Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry why the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive's provision that manufacturers of electrical goods and equipment may make the cost of recycling historic equipment visible to the consumer is not being permitted in the UK. [34382]

Malcolm Wicks: The Government intend to implement the directive's provisions that producers may show, for a transitional period, the costs of recycling 'historical' waste electrical goods and equipment from private households to consumers at the point of sale of new equipment.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether steps are being taken by the Government to prevent profit-taking by third parties with no obligations under the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive. [34647]

Malcolm Wicks: The Government expect to implement the obligations under the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive on a basis which allows producers to procure treatment and recycling services for the waste equipment for which they have responsibility on a commercially contracted basis.

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