LAST
RET
NE
REF.
Commoditur Dest
cs. In Gallagher
My Bostanley
-47
$176.
11th June 1971
I am sorry not to have replied sooner to your letter of 8th June about the possibility of including a new Clause in the Finance Bill to allow temporary relief from import duty on Commonwealth cotton textiles shipped under the quota arrangements.
In his letter of 17th May to your Minister, the Chancellor sought to avoid giving a final commitment to introduce this Clause in case the Finance Bill ran into unexpectedly rough water. I fear that the water has been a lot rougher than the Chancellor expected at the time of his letter, and progress in the Standing Committee has been disappointingly slow.
Half way through the original timetable, the Committee has still reached no further than Clause 18, with another 35 Clauses and 10 Schedules still to consider, quite apart from 54 new Clauses.
For this reason, we are having to adopt a particularly stringent approach to the tabling of Government new Clauses, and already a number of meritorious candidates from the Revenue Departments have been turned down. Indeed the only new Clause we expect to be tabling for Committee Stage is that relating to the under-recording of exports, and this very long and complex Clause has of course been drafted mainly at your Department's request. In these circonstances, after very careful consideration, Treasury Ministers have reached the reluctant conclusion that it will just not be possible to include in the Bill a new Clause on Commonwealth cotton textiles. I am afraid therefore that we are unDLC to agree to you tabling a new Clause as drafted.
I am copying this letter to McCormick (F.C.0.).
(N.A. Nagler)