(1) 540,000 lbs. yar
CONFIDENTIAL
(2) 15.58m sq. yds. of cloth and made-ups in the following categories:
m. sq. yds.
Group II
Cat 4
+5
drills, jeans etc
1.226
7
poplins including yarn-dyed
sheetings and
shirtings
0.200
0.200
8
loomstate
6.113
Group III
Cat 9
12
Group IV
Cat 13
piecegoods
Corduroys finished
piecegoods
towels
1.000
0.687
0.254
14
bedlinen
0.799
16
men's and boys'
1.788
coats and trousers
17
women's and girls'
0.206
trousers
19
women's and girls'
2.148
dresses
21
nightwear and
0.435
underwear
22
made-ups n.e.s.
0.533
TOTAL
15.589
7. The consequences of not meeting these claims for hardship would be that Hong Kong exporters would have to buy yardage at a very high premium in order to get licences because performance in Groups II, III and IV was 99.95% in 1971. (This demonstrated how strong the market had been in 1971, perhaps because of the imminence of the new CPA tariff, but performance in 1970 (82.88%) 1969 (97.35%) and 1968 (101.33%) had also been high: in other words the quotas had kept supply below potential demand.) There were difficulties in trying to persuade quota holders to surrender their quota rights because it meant transfer or profitability and possible future losses - hence the high premium demanded. Furthermore, if the administration intervened to take back arbitrarily the limited amount of yardage held by "quota farmers", this would amount to only 2.7% of the "hardship" yardage so far established*
•
11
Mr Heddon-Cave explained later that there were 370 established quota holders in Hong Kong, or 1000 quota/category holders. Of this 1000, 61 were 'quota farmers", holding 0.2% of total access rights. If their yardage was withdrawn, it would account for 2.7% of the 16m. sq. yds. "hardship" figure.
CUNPIDERMAL