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Hong Kong of coats under restraint dropped sharply in 1968, while those under E/A increased. He thought that might be due to the psychological effect of the imposition of restraints. He suggested that the existing E/A and restraint items could be grouped together under a combined quota, admitting that they had statistical difficulties in classifying coats of impregnated fabric and those which were not of impregnated fabric. Mr, Henriksson added that the Swedish tariff classification numbers for those coats were 61.01.105 (coats other than of impregnated fabric) and 61.01.108 (coats of impregnated fabric): however the definitions of those coats were not clear-cut, resulting in the classification problem.
46.
Mr. Jordan drew attention to the declining market for the item. He argued that imports from Hong Kong were also not at all alarming; even for the E/A items, the quantity licensed during the ten-month period in question was less than 10 pieces.
47.
Baron de Geer suggested that Messrs. Ho and Henriksson should hold a discussion in respect of the definition and classifica- tion for such coats before proceeding further. Mr. Jordan agreed.
Woven cotton slacks and trousers
48.
Mr. Strandberg said that factories producing men's and boys' slacks and trousers would also manufacture women's and girls' wear of the same sort since the machines and tools required for their production were the same. Mr. Jordan said that since the same factories could produce men's and boys' slacks and women's and girls' slacks, it was only necessary to examine the figures for slacks as a whole and that the separate figures for male and female style slacks could be disregarded. Baron de Geer agreed to this approach.
49.
Mr. Strandberg said that the decrease in Hong Kong imports in 1968 was due to the fact that men's and boys' slacks were under restraint. Imports of women's and girls' slacks, which were not subject to control, had in fact shown an increase. In reply Mr. Jordan pointed out that although total imports for the item had gone up, Swedish exports had also increased. As for exports from Hong Kong, in ten months of the restraint period, quantities licensed amounted to only 61% of the restraint limit for men's and boys' ́slacks. The decline in Swedish production could not, therefore, be attributed to imports from Hong Kong. The Swedish tables indicated that demand in Sweden had switched to imports from U.S.A. which jumped from 626 in 1967 to 1,534 in 1968, making U.S.A. the leading supplier. Restraint on Hong Kong would not help Swedish production.
50. Admitting that the U.S.A. had become the leading supplier, Baron de Geer said that those garments were branded products. He pointed out that imports from Yugoslavia and Portugal had also increased, and both had been placed under 'restraint Portugal from I December 1968 on men's trousers, while Yugoslavia was restrained
on women's slacks as well.
Bed linen
51.
Mr. Strandberg began by reciting the figures in Other Made-up Cotton Articles Table 1. He added that the production of bed linen fabrics and that of bed linen were by the same factories, and the recent tendency was for Swedish manufacturers to turn their interest from the production of piecegoods (bed linen fabric) to made-up articles (bed linen and sheeting). He said that Swedish production of such fabrics declined from 2,197 tons in 1967 to 2,188 tons in 1968; the decline was more obvious when comparing the production figures for the second half of 1967 with that for the same period of
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/1968,