25. There are a number of respectable arguments in favour of going
ahead with liberalisation, and refusing to modify the Crosland safeguard
formula. Not the least of these arguments is that we would have kept
our workd; we secured the agreement of the Commonwealth to the
imposition of the tariff on the clear undertaking that there would
be no quantitative restrictions. We should thereby ensure that the
momentum of the shake-out in the industry was maintained, and that it
was slimmed down to a more sensible size by the time of EEC entry.
Quota controls are not in the interests of the consumer;
nor, since
they arrest the transfer of national resources from the less efficient
to the more efficient sectors of industry, are they in the interests
of the economy generally. On the other hand, members of the EEC
Commission have made it clear that they expect the UK to avoid
disruptive developments on the import point in the year preceding our
entry into the Community; and UK Ministers may feel that the political
pressures on them to alleviate the situation in Lancashire, particularly
having regard to the employment prospects in the area, are now so
great that the Government must be seen to be taking action, of one
t
kind or another.
26. The most extreme form of action
most welcome to Lancashire
and the one which would be
would be a continuation of quotas, but at
a lower level than hitherto, in addition to the introduction of the
CPA tariff. This would be so flagrantly in contravention of the Long
Term Arrangement, and such a blatant breach of our undertaking to the
developing Commonwealth that the introduction of the CPA tariff would
be accompanied by a liberalisation of their cotton textile trade,
officials feel obliged to advise Ministers against this course.
that
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