Of total
In the field of trade, there is no question of
greater importance to Hong Kong than the future
international regulation of trade in textiles.
domestic exports worth £577 millions in 1968, exports of
textiles, including garments, were worth nearly £277
millions. 83 millions of Hong Kong's export earnings
were accounted for by garments sold to the U.S.A. Any
drastic curtailment of the textile trade would thus have
disastrous economic, social, and therefore political,
effects in the Colony. In exercising their
responsibilities for Hong Kong, Ministers ought not to
take the risk of adopting any policy which could have
such effects.
2.
13
When so much is at stake, the Hong Kong Government
is bound to feel anxious over the lack of clarity in the
paper before Ministers on the objectives and terms of
reference of the working party "to review the (textiles)
situation and recommend the best way of dealing with it".
It is unlikely to regard definition of these objectives
as something which can be put on one side at this juncture,
but rather as a matter crucial to the whole textile policy
of H.M.G. If the views of Hong Kong Government
representatives in recent discussions are any guide this
will be because, just as the B.O.T. fears that more
voluntary restraints may lead to an extension of the
Cotton Textiles Arrangement to non-cottons "by the back
door", so the Hong Kong Government believes that attempts
to deal with the textiles situation through a working
party may lead to definition of the GATT escape clause
mechanism which will work against the interests of the
developing countries not only in the case of textiles
but also on other products.
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