0003230
G.F. 323
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23
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pointed out that the Swedish tables only showed shirts of knitted cotton, woven cotton, woven discontinuous synthetics and knitted synthetics. It did not appear that artificial fibres, such as rayon, had been included.
130.
Baron de Ceer said that all this detail was meaningless; perhaps the time had arrived for the Swedes to take the same action as they had recently taken against Yugoslavia and control the trade themselves. The Swedish Government had decided that Swedish production capacity of shirts must not, for defence reasons, fall below 5 million pieces and that was the main factor that had to be taken into account.
131. Mr. Ho said examination of details were essential to Hong Kong for the purpose of determining whether there were grounds for the Swedish request for restraint. "e as naturally concerned about shirts made of rayon in relation to the total production of shirts. In reply, Baron de Geer said he was not certain about the position, but for detailed classification of shirts, the following sub-headings were used in Swedish statistics:
Knitted of synthetic or artificial
nitted of cotton
Knitted of other textile materials
Shirts of leather and skin
Joven of synthetic & artificial fibre including
nylon, terylene, etc.
Woven of cotton
Woven of other textiles.
Variations might arise between manufacturers and the Customs Authorities as to the use of the proper sub-heading, and it was possible that rayon shirts might have been included as synthetics. Mr. Strandberg explained that the quantity of rayon shirts was small. Since 1968, Swedish rayon had been increasingly utilised in the manufacture of tyre-cores, not garments.
Blouses, not knitted or crocheted, wholly or mainly of continuous or discontinuous synthetic fibres, women's and girls' wear (ex 841 739)
132.
Mr. Bernunger said that while production of cotton blouses fell by 15 in 1969, production of blouses of synthetic fibres declined during the period 1965 - 1968 but increased from 264 in 1968 to 305 in 1969. Imports of woven synthetic fibre blouses increased from 530 in 1968 to 1,119 in 1969, and imports from Hong Kong increased from 536 to 923 in the corresponding period. Imports from South Korea, Finland and Denmark also increased, but ong Kong was by far the dominant supplier. Mr. Ho enquired whether the Swedish side was in a position to give relevant production figures for any 'shirts' which could conceivably have been included in blouses. If Sweden wanted to include women's shirts under restraint, Hong Kong should be supplied with relevant production figures to gauge if a case of injury could be substantiated. Baron de Ceer said that as far as he was aware, production figures for this item excluded women's shirts. There was no import position for women's shirts becaus: Customs classified them as blouses.
/133. .....
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