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Mr. Jordan said cotton blouses from Hong Kong to Sweden were
already subject to a restraint under the L.T.A. The level of
restraint for synthetic blouses suggested by the Swedes was
slightly higher than the Hong Kong figure for 1968 which had
been 536,000. Here again he would have to try to get the
highest level he could.
5) Women's and girls' knitted continuous synthetic underwear
Mr. Jupp said that a restraint on this item would increase
pressure' from U.K. industry. There was however great confusion
about exactly what was covered by the Swedish statistics as this
was a "catch all" heading, although it appeared that the request
for restraint might refer to one item only (i.e. pants).
Mr. Stewart said he had drawn up a table based on the
Swedish import statistics which showed a great discrepancy
between these published figures and those sent by the Swedes.
He handed this table to Mr. Jordan who agreed in the light of this
information that he would certainly ask the Swedes to get their
statistics correct before entering into any discussion with them
on this item.
The meeting then resumed discussion of the major policy
issues.
Mr. Hughes said it had now been agreed that if it were decided
to concede any degree of restraint on non-cotton items the Swedes
appeared to have a case. However over and above this there had
been trouble with the Americans over the size of the imports of
such items into the U.S. and H.M.G. had been trying to hold the
line against restraints in that market. However restraints had
already been conceded by Hong Kong to Sweden and Canada and
other countries had conceded such restraints in various ways.
Taking the international scene as a whole, the most favourable
/ position