Minister for Trade
Cotton Textiles: Transition from Quotas to Cariffs
1. In a letter of 11 June, the Chancellor's office
reaffirmed that (as the Chancellor had said on 20 April,
in reply to your earlier approach) he could not find room in
the Finance Bill for a provision to give tariff relief to
imports of cotton textiles from the Commonwealth preference
area which were shipped under quota before the end of 1971 and arrived in this country after 1 January 1972 (when quotas
will be replaced by a tariff on CPA textiles). You proposed
this relief as one of two measures to secure orderly phasing
of shipments.
2. In the light of this second refusal, and the virtual
impossibility of finding time in the Parliamentary programme
for separate legislation to give duty relief, it seems that
we have no choice but to accent that relief will not now be
possible. With not much more than six months remaining
before the changeover from quotas to tariffs at the turn on
the year, it is now a matter of great urgency to let our
overseas suppliers and importers know what the transition
arrangements will be.
3.
Failing duty relief, it is for consideration whether we
should apply the other transitional measure mentioned in your
letter to the Chancellor. This for which no additional
powers are needed would be to enforce the existing quotas
on all goods shipped from the restricted countries up to the
very end of 1971. Since some of these would still be in
transit for the first two or three months of 1972, it would be