WASHINGTON
3/2/69
KESTRICTED
22
WASHINGTON
3rd February, 1969.
6
Your telegrams 249 and 297.
18
Voluntary restraint on textile exports to U.S.A.
raises very serious problems both practically and
politically. Same objections of principle would apply
to a voluntary scheme for textiles as we saw in the case
of steel. Further, in the unlikely event of other
countries agreeing, and being able, to limit effectively
their textile exports to U.S., we and no doubt
others would have to insist on similar restraints on
suppli s to us in order to protect our own markets from
goods shut out of U.S. The inevitable result would be
to set off a series of import restrictions in many
hardly countries which could prestak
items picked by V.S.
be limited to the textile
2.
Apart from these serious objections of principle, it
18
would be quite impracticable to introduce voluntary
restriction scheze with expectation that it would
observed by
hundreds of firms which export cloth
garments and other textile manufactures to the U.S.A.