/8.
exceptions but backed up only with a vague and general safeguard
mechanism on which they would have no great reliance. The views
of the Commonwealth in general have not yet been sought. The
developed members of the Commonwealth Preference Area and the
Irish Republic have been consulted but only Australia has
replied in detail. They have indicated in strong terms their
opposition to our offer of duty free entry with only a general
safeguard and have urged us to consider a more specific
safeguard provision particularly to protect third country
suppliers; duty quotas would go some way to meeting their concern.
Similarly developing Commonwealth countries would be likely in
principle to favour quantitative restrictions on the competition
they would have to face in our market from other developing
countries as the result of duty free entry, although on
particular products their view would depend on the level of
the duty quota that would be fixed in each case.
The application of duty quotas to the U.K. offers
.23.
In considering how our duty quotas could be adopted as the
basis for a revised U.K. offer it is difficult to draw on
relevant previous experience in this country. A range of goods,
mainly agricultural products but including jute and cotton
textiles and pottery, are subject to import quotas butthe level
of the quotas has no direct connection with the levels of the
duty chargeable. Within the quota limits imports enter under
Commonwealth preference if from the Commonwealth or pay the
full rate of duty if from elsewhere; when the quota limit is
full no further imports are allowed at all. All the existing
quotas are therefore administered by means of import licensing
and no goods can be imported without a valid import licence.
: /(in