The Rt Hon Sir Alec Douglas-Home, KT IP House of Commons
SW1
President
Original of Mr Smith's letter and enclosure
With her latter of 11 February your
Secretary forwarded for my comments the
enclosed letter to you from Mr Alan Smith
of Joseph Dawson (Holdings) Ltd Kinross.
I appreciate and sympathise with your
constituent's difficulty in meeting
competition from Hong Kong. However, as you
are aware, the imposition of a protective
tariff or any other restrictions on imports
of woollen knitwear, or indeed any other
products, from Hong Kong would be inconsistent
with the declared policy of successive
Governments. This principle was reiterated
last summer when Anthony Crosland, in
announcing our intention to replace quots
controls on cotton textiles by a tariff on
imports from Commonwealth countries, made it
olear that our decision had been taken in
response to a situation which has long been
recognised internationally as exceptional and
did not create a precedent for further
departures from our traditional policy.
I am sure that you agree that it is in
our wider interest as a major exporting
country to work towards the removal of
restrictions on international trade rather
than add to them. Furthermore, it is
especially important that we should avoid
placing obstacles in the way of exports of the developing countries, and particularly those [of our Colonial territories such as Hong Kong,
for which
where we have a special responsibility.
In conclusion may I just say, without
/going