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Mr. Stewart said he thought that one of the advantages of the U.S. taking action in a non-discriminatory manner under Article XIX was that it would make them open to retaliation by the EEC and this might be a useful discipline.
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Mr. Jupp pointed out that so far the meeting had been discussing garments only, but Mr. Stans also had in mind the possible restriction of wool cloth from Japan and Italy. agreed that to restrict garments only might simply mean that U.S. importers would switch to buying the cheap cloth instead but thought this was not likely to happen on the knitwear items where many were "knitted to shape," and Mr. Dunnett added that the U.S. were, in any case, already in practice restricting the import of wool cloth from Italy, (by means of a higher specific duty on imports of certain types of heavy woollen cloth).
The meeting then turned to the discussion of the position of Hong Kong vis a vis other importing countries. The U.K. was at present looking at the statistics in regard to imports of non-cotton textiles from Hong Kong in order to decide whether or not any case U.K. industry put forward might be justified, and Mr. Hughes asked Mr. Jordan if he were aware of any other country doing the same.
1. Sweden: Mr. Jordan said he "was keeping his fingers crossed". It was, of course, always possible that the Swedes might suggest further restraints but he did not think there was any great likelihood of this happening. Last year, when the restraints had first been conceded, they had been concerned about their forthcoming election and it had not been the domestic producers but the trade unions that had caused the trouble.
2. Norway: The Norwegians had produced figures that showed that imports of knitwear, which was not under restraint, had increased enormously. During his recent talks with them he had said Hong Kong would hope that they would drop some of the restraints where the agreed restraint level had not been reached and he thought there was a good chance of their doing this. It was of course possible that they would ask for a restraint on knitwear but there had not seemed to be any great urgency about this.
3.
Germany: Last year Hong Kong had received a note from the Germans in regard to certain man-made fibre items claiming a case under Article VI of the LTA (substitution). He had also been told by a contact in the trade that the German government would welcome a stiff reply. This had been sent and Hong Kong had heard no more. When Mr. Stewart had enquired about the matter when in Geneva, the Germans said they had decided to drop it.
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