to 31 December 1971. It would also produce bitter complaints from UK
importing interests, which have planned their contracts on the basis of
the assurances given them about the availability of duty relief.
39. On the second, the Government has not taken powers to operate duty-
free quotas during 1972. Lancashire would be strongly opposed to any
concession of this kind, however limited in scope. If the duty-free
arrangements for cotton textiles covered the same list of
beneficiaries as the rest of our UNCTAD offer, a considerable degree
of "counter-marching" would be involved when, after accession to the
EEC, we had to conform to the Community's short list of half a dozen or so beneficiaries (which excludes, amongst many others, Hong Kong).
For all these reasons, it is recommended that the UK should not
introduce duty-free quotas for textiles in advance of Common Market
entry.
A
***
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