AFFIRMATIVE RESOLUTION ON IMPORT DUTIES (GENERAL) (NO
ORDER 1971
PASSAGE FOR INCLUSION IN NOTES FOR SPEECH COTTON TEXTILES
We in the UK have long acted, and will continue to act, in·
pursuit of liberal international trade policies. But we have
to recognise at the same time that there are specially intractable
problems in certain areas, and we have to have regard to the
actions of the other members of the international trading
Community. It is with this in mind that I would now like to
deal with the second main purpose of this Order.
For reasons which we gave yesterday, the Government have decided
to retain in 1972 the present general system of quantitative
restrictions on imports of cotton textiles. Nevertheless, we are
still going ahead with tho tariff on imports of cotton yam and
woven cotton textiles imported from the Commonwealth Preference
Arca (other than the Irish Republic) from 1 January 1972. The
decision to introduce this tariff was announced by the then
1964 President of the Board of Trade on 22 July and endorsed by this
Λ Government after taking office. It followed a recommendation by
the industry's own Textile Council, after a two year Productivity
and Efficiency Study, that the tariff would offer a margin of
protection that was stable and predictable and would enable the
industry to plan ahead with confidence. We still regard the
tariff as a necessary long term form of protection for the
industry.