DRAFT LETTER TO
Chairman of AE
(copied to EPC)
COTTON TEXTILES
You will recall that it had been our intention at the end of
this year to remove our present quota restrictions on cotton textile
imports from the developing countries and instead to impose
tariffs against such imports from the Commonwealth; imports from
non-Commonwealth developing countries are, of course, already
subject to a tariff.
At our AE meeting on 25 October when we discussed textiles
we agreed that, since it seemed inevitable that any request would
be refused and that even to make such a request would have
difficult consequences in the light of the overall negotiating
position, we should not seek from the Community a derogation from
their existing quota arrangements for imports of cotton textiles
from the developing countries. This decision means that we
become subject to the Community's existing quota arrangements from
the beginning of 1973 and means, of course, that we will not be
able to maintain an independent textile import policy (ie tariffs
and no quotas) for a period after entry into EEC. In the light of
this, I undertook to review the decision to impose tariffs from
1 January 1972 on cotton textile imports from the Commonwealth.
G
I have now completed my review. I am entirely satisfied that
it would be undesirable to go back on the decision to impose the
tariff on the Commonwealth from 1 January 1972. The decision to
end the present quota system and to replace it by a tariff on the
Commonwealth followed from a recommendation by the Textile Council,