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On the face of it, this may be the best tactical approach, but how to persuade the numerous individuals whose livelihood is bound up with textiles to relinquish their interest is another matter. Already, however, the consultants chosen by the Government to assist the Board of Trade in its blueprint for the 1975 structure, have started their visits to the smaller and medium-sized companies to try out their theories on the practical men in the mills.
Physical Integration the Aim.
Sir James Steel made it clear at the press conference that the Textile Council would be available as a "marriage bureau" to arrange any suitable amalgamations, but the report itself stressed that integration was far more of a physical objective rather than a purely financial link. It may be that mutual exchange of know-how and technical collaboration, such as that just announced by Klinger Manufacturing and British Cotton and Wool Dyers, may provide a better answer than a complete merger.
Improving cost efficiency, creating a more compact and vertical industry and making the most effective use of machines and labour are all aspects which come within the responsibilities of management. These exhortations in the report are not exactly new; they have been made before, though not always with the amount of statistical detail to back them up.
Unified Tariff Structure.
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The main recommendation of the survey on which in fact the whole future hinges, is the import problem. Some members of the Textile Council are convinced that the quota system has failed; alternative tariff scheme would straighton out at long last an anachronism which goes back to a time when the now developing countries were in their economic infancy. There should be, as was emphasised at the press conference, a unified tariff structure for textiles, in which both the natural and man-made fibres would share.
Sir James Steel quite rightly said that the whole scene had changed. The structure and motivation of textile trade within the Commonwealth was altogether different; many members of the Council felt that it was now timely to look again at a tariff system, firmly backed by safeguards against dumping and other means of distorting trade.
It must be recognised that not only the tariff issue but other pending decisions from the Courtaulds-English Calico merger to the investigation into yarn prices - present the Board of Trade with a host of controversial points on which to give guidance. So many of the problems are inter-linked that it is difficult to make one decision without affecting another subject.
Yet without early evidence of the way in which Government thinking is moving, the trade itself is bound to remain in a state of uncertainty. The latest clearance returns, although making comparison with the unusual circumstances of 1968, show a sharp downward drift in retail sales. The Budget is unlikely to reverse this trend and distributors are understandably cautious. The sooner any unnecessary uncertainties can be removed the better.
EARNINGS FROM EXPORTS IMPROVE.
Looking on the bright side in the overseas trade returns covering the first two months of 1969, earnings from exports were distinctly better, while the cost of imports has remained at virtually the same level. Taking all textiles into account, including of course wool, shipments abroad in the first two months of the year were valued at £52,015,000 against £46, 188,000 in the same period of 1968; correspond- ing imports cost £41,472,000 against £41,313,000.