06
INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE SITUATION
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Background
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In his election campaign, President Nixon made
a promise "to take an early opportunity to seek
to extend the concept of the C.T.A. to other fibres", Congressman Mills spoke in January of a possible solution to the "textile problem" by means of voluntary limitations by exporters of all textiles' to a value ceiling; but subsequently it appears
this was his own, half-formed idea and had no
Administration backing.
At a press conference on 6th February, President
Nixon said he believed in freer trade; took a
dim view of the tendency to move toward quotas;
but felt there was a "special problem" in regard
to textiles to which he hoped a solution could
be found on a voluntary basis rather than having
to go to legislation..
There was public speculation (but no official
statement) that a .S. team, consisting of
Robert Ellsworth (the President's special adviser
on textiles), Nehmer of Commerce and Blackman of
Labour, would visit Asia during the President's visit
to Europe. This visit did not take place, nor is
there any sign that it will in the near future.
The official British view is that the problem is
political rather than real. Objective information
indicates that after the six years of unparalelled
growth up to 1967 referred to by the U.S. Tariff
Commission, 1968 was an even more profitable year
for the U.S. textile industry. U.K. policy is to
/play the situation slowly;