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(a) A major defect of the Government's policy
was that the change in treatment of imports
was to occur when the industry had yet to
fully implement the Study's recommendations
and was still in a state of flux; even so they
recognised that we could not turn the clock back
on tariffs;
(b) mill closures were taking place (now) twice
as fast as forecast by the Textile Council;
(c) they were particularly worried about imports
of knitted garments.
12. What action do British Industry expect the
Government to take.
The BTEA asked the Government to take the
following measures:-
(i) to use the provisions of the GATT to
prevent dumping;
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(ii) to give urgent consideration to BTEA's
earlier demands for a more detailed categorisa-
tion of textile imports;
(iii) to "reactivate" the Imports Commission;
(iv) to do what it could do to encourage Gov-
ernment agencies to "buy British";
(v) to prevent the lapse in September 1973 of
the GATT Long Term Arrangement;
(vi) to provide for the continuation of the need
for foreign made-up textiles to show their
country of origin;
(vii) there should be consideration of an
import surcharge to tide the industry over its
current crisis.
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