2
Knitwear
4.
Imports of wool sweaters have increased as
production fell, but last summer the Swodoo
agreed that wool and discontinuous sweaters were
intorchangeable and on this lacle it was agreed
there was a caso for quotas on women's arcaters.
The 1900 figures show that the reduction in
production of women's nool sweaters was nearly twice
the increase in imports and that the massive
reduction in the (much larger) production of women's
discontinuous synthetic sucators was accompanied
by a massive reduction in imports. The case for
continuing the restraint is further weakened by
the evidence that production of mon's discontinuous
synthetic sweaters Dre increased and that this was
accompanieá by a decline in imports. This difference
in trend is also observable in the case of continuous
Dynthetic sweaters. This shows that we made a mistake
in adding men's knitwear to the restraint list in
February of this your without considering the position
on synthetics.
5. Wo have also failed to take into account the
position of cotton sweaters, imports of which appear
to have doubled in the past two years. Hong Kong's
share of this trade is negligible. The damage has boon
caused by Denmark, Portugal and Finland in that order.
The lack of Asiatic competition in this case confirms
our view that access to cheap Japanese fibre is the
main problem with British competition.
15.