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view, the U.S. Government are seeking to establish
restraints on almost all non-cotton textiles when no
convincing evidence has been produced which shows that
the American textile industry as a whole is threatened
with serious injury. Such restraints would have
the effect of taking an important segment of world
trade out of the market-place, perhaps permanently,
and so would set back the steady progress of the last
twenty years in freeing trade in manufactures from
quantitative control. The real risk is of throwing
the machine into reverse and of setting a precedent
for arbitrary import restrictions on whole areas of
industrial production anywhere in the world.
If, however, you were instead to seek remedies
for specific cases of demonstrable injury, I believe -
although I cannot of course speak for other Governments -
that exporting countries generally would welcome this
kind of approach and that it might pave the way for
a solution to your difficulties. We would certainly
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CONFIDENTIAL