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U.S. manufacturers which all pointed to the competition
they were experiencing from the Far East; they were losing
customers to importers and were themselves being forced
either to buy foreign fabrics or the finished article in
order to remain in business. These letters had all been
copied to members of Congress and could be expected to have
a strong influence on them. It was essential that the U.S.
Government should solve the textile problem before Congress
took the situation into its own hands. What he could not
understand was why there was such difficulty in reaching
agreement on man made and wool fibre textiles when agreement
on cotton had been relatively straightforward.
49.
Sir Eugene Helville said that first and foremost
cotton was sui generis; it presented a particular problem
for many countries deriving from the historical structure
of the cotton industries of the developed countries and the
efforts by developing countries to begin their industriali-
sation by movement into the relatively unsophisticated
manufacturing processes of cotton textiles. Exporting
countries had believed that the orderly development of
their cotton industries was in their interest. Their
experience with the operation of the L.T.A. had dis-
illusioned them.
50.
Mr. Jordan agreed and added that the L.T.A.
was something of an experiment which had not worked out
/as
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