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entry, i.e., 1 January 1973, in the Community's arrangements
under Article 4 of the Long Term Arrangement for trade in
cotton textiles (paragraph 9 of AE(71)35). If we do accept
this, we shall ipso facto be accepting a return to quantitative
restrictions. As paragraph 10 of the paper explains, this,
unless moderated by the introduction of duty-free quotas on
textiles in general as in the EEC's current GPS scheme, will
render us open to the virtual certainty of criticism from
Commonwealth countries, which, other things being equal, we
should do our best to avoid.
6. Other things however are not equal. As paragraph 11 of
the paper explains, if we attempted to secure a derogation from
the application of Article 4 of the Long Term Arrangement,
we should be extremely unlikely to get it. The chances are
strongly that we would have in the end to give in after a public
row, which we would be publicly seen to lose. We should also
add to the dangerously long list of issues which anyhow remain
to be settled in the remaining weeks of the negotiations.
7. The disadvantages in paragraph 6, which would be both
immediate and dangerously prejudicial to our negotiating aims,
outweigh those in paragraph 5, on which in any case we have
time to consider palliative action (see below). We should
therefore not seek a derogation from the Community, and accept
as a consequence the re-introduction of quantitative restrictions.
on cotton textiles from our date of entry. We should not however
parade this acceptance. As recommended in paragraph 14(c) of
the paper, we need not specifically announce it. If the
Community a sk us our intention we should press them not to
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