Paper for EU(0)
UK TEXTILE FOLICY IN EUROPE
The goal
Our basic aim is the equalisation of competitive conditions among the textile industries of the Nine, which we and the UK industry believe will enable viable units here to grow and prosper, while discouraging the misallocation of economic resources. We propose that this be achieved by progressively dismantling protection in other Member States higher than our own. So, externally we are seeking a liberal Community import regime with restraints only where justified against actual or threatened market disruption and related to adjustment by the
sectors concerned. Internally we want to establish genuine free circulation of imported textile products. This policy
would result in a true common market for textiles and a common
external policy; it would be internationally respectable;
it would suit our interests.
and
Effect of the textile cycle
2. At the present time, the UK textile industry (as most others) is enjoying the effects of a world wide boom in demand for textile products and because of its present lower costs and wage rates is in a comparatively healthy competitive position vis-a-vis the textile industries of our European partners. But it is very clear that when the textile cycle is on the down-turn again - and this will start to happen next year - the competitive position of the UK industry in relation to its more protected partners in Europe will be seriously affected; the pressure from the UK industry to cut back on imports from developing countries will be very difficult to resist if by then we have made no progress towards equalising the burden of low-cost imports in the countries of the Community.
Progress to date
3. In the past months conflict with the Commission and our European partners has arisen partly from clashes of national interest and partly because we are challenging conventional thinking in the Community, on three main points.
-
1.