CP
The Chairman of the Knitting
Industries Federation
The Chairman of the National Union of
Hosiery and Knitwear Workers
I have given careful consideration to the case for quantitative
restraints on imports of knitted underwear and outerwear from
Hong Kong and Taiwan presented in your memorandum of 11 October,
and I was most grateful to the representatives of the Knitting
Industries Federation, and the National Union of Hosiery and
Knitwear Workers and the British Textile Confederation who further
developed the case when they came to see me on 18 December.
The Government remain convinced of the need for a viable textile
industry in the UK and indeed for a viable textile industry
throughout the European Community. We think it essential, however,
that our policies, and those of the Community as a whole, should be
directed to the development of those forms of textile production
which are capable of viability with the projection of a moderate
tariff. It would serve neither the expansion of real wealth in
this country nor our interest in the economic growth and political
stability of developing countries if we tried to protect ourselves
indefinitely by quotas and similar barriers against imports of
goods which we could only go on producing ourselves with the benefit
of such protection. In his letter to the President of the British
Textile Confederation of 10 August 1972 ta the Minister for
Industrial Development recognised that quantitative restraints
against disruptive textile imports would be justified in order,
for example, to enable potentially viable sectors of industry to
become so or to prevent unemployment or other social hardship
in industries facing decline. But such restraints should be Uniteä
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