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The CEA is committed to working with the network of other trade associations, agencies and government departments to promote the interests of the UK construction equipment sector. Here are some lobbying and consultation projects undertaken since the last issue of Newsline. AGGREGATES TAX OPPOSED As part of the pre-General Election "clear the decks" exercise, the government rushed through the Bill containing a new tax on aggregates. We were alerted to the legislation by our contacts at the Quarry Products Association, who saw the tax as an imposition on UK aggregates producers (to the tune of £300 million plus per annum) whilst imported products containing aggregates will bear no levy. We see the objective of the tax to encourage the recycling of building materials to be a good one, indeed some of our members produce equipment designed to help the recycling process. However, penalising UK producers and effectively taking money out of overall construction budgets is not the way forward. The CEA lobbied the parliamentary committee reviewing the Bill and won support from a number of Conservative MPs - alas the large Labour majority saw to it that the legislation was enacted.
NEW EXPORT FOCUS PROPOSAL FOR CONSTRUCTION The CEA was asked to comment on a DETR proposal to establish a new organisation to focus on export development and promotion in the construction sector. In the past we have been happy to co-operate with the Export Action Centre for construction materials and co-promote overseas British Groups at exhibitions with Building Exhibitions Management. However, the outcome of the proposal may be uncertain with the DETR construction interests being subsumed under the DTI in the post election re-organisation.
THE AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR Discussions have taken place with the SMMT and other related associations to establish whether a co-ordinated approach to export strategy might be developed. This is a response to the DTI's Sector Partnership initiative, designed to encourage co-operation between complementary sectors in the development of export strategies. The CEA is successfully co-operating with the SMMT Industry Forum on our Promoting Performance initiative.
IRISH CONTRACTORS PLANT ASSOCIATION Rob Oliver, CEA Chief Executive, met with the President of the Irish Contractors Plant Association (ICPA), in Dublin, in May. The CEA hopes to develop links with the ICPA. A possible Management Council meeting in Ireland is mooted for later in the year, following the successful first ever overseas Council meeting held last year in Brussels.
DTI MEETS THE WORLD OF CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT We were delighted to welcome DTI Automotive department officials Paul Mullins and Alan Woods to this year's Bauma exhibition in Munich - which featured over 125 UK based companies (a report on Bauma can be found our Exhibitions page).
CECE'S FORWARD STRATEGY Under the Presidency of Michel Van der Linden (Caterpillar), the Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE) is progressing its strategic review for report back to this year's annual congress in Knokke, Belgium. The CEA Secretariat is helping with two of the working groups set up to conduct the review - the Structure Working Group and the Web Site Group.
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