quantities of cotton and wool products from the
Commonwealth and E.F.T.A. duty-free. We impose
duties on imports of man-made fibre products
from the Commonwealth, but not from Portugal
Woven (but not .
and other E.F.T.A. countries.
:
knitted) cotton products are subject to quotas
under the L.T.A. but given the difference in the
tariff position, the size of the quotas on cotton,
and the effect which imports have had on
production and employment in the United Kingdom, we find it difficult to accept that the United
States market is more open than that of the U.K. to imports from developing countries.
We recognise that we have got to normalise
our relations with Japan the only country we treat less favourably than you do and I am authorised to tell you in the strictest confidence that we are proposing to offer the Japanese a timetable for liberalisation in the forthcoming
trade negotiations, provided the Japanese make concessions in return. The U.K. industry were
consulted about this in strict confidence as long
ago as last December. At this stage we do not wish to reduce our bargaining power by making a public statement of our intentions, though the question is of course on the agenda for discussion in the forthcomingnegotiations. The Japanese made it clear last year that they would want to make substantial progress towards liberalisation' in this year's negotiations and we recognise that the
time has come to meet them on this.
Incidentally, you may be interested to mow that United Kingdom imports of woven cotton and
man-made fibre and woven cotton made-ups from the
United States in 1968 accounted for approximately
¿