-2-
importing countries to the use of quantitative restrictions to combat market disruption or in other special circumstances.
(a)
The change from quotas to a tariff should be accompanied by determined action to stop dumping and the creation of improved
means of doing so.
(e) The removal of the quotas would involve no quid pro quo against those global quota countries outside the Commonwealth whose exports to the United Kingdom are currently subject to both duty and quota.
(f) There must be a transitional period before quotas could
During be abandoned and reliance on tariffs alone accepted. this period it is essential that the quota system should not be changed in such a way as to allow a significantly larger volume of imports than at present, which might undermine the market in total or have major disruptive effects on any single category.
(g) The proposal to change from quotas to a tariff amounts to a fundamental change in British commercial policy towards the Commonwealth. But other Commonwealth countries impose tariffs on textile imports from the United Kingdom and this country is under no moral obligation to continue to give free entry to them. The Council consider that the present anomalies in the United Kingdom system of protection should be removed.
3. For line to take
See my immediately following Guidance telegram.
Stewart
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