1
2
(c) Industrial development plans in the North West and
Northern Ireland would suffer (final para on page 3 of Miss Lowne's draft).
(a) The main controlled exporters (India and Pakistan)
and also Turkey, have schemes for subsidiary exports. Point (a) scarcely requires comment! No evidence is given to support (b), except the generalisation that rising imports would have a "domino effect". One would have thought that, as far as the textile industry as a whole is concerned, free access to low-cost cotton yarn from India, Pakistan and Hong Kong would be an asset to the weaving section. As regards (c), these devlopment plans were presumably iade in the expectation that yarn imports would be free of restriction by the end of 1973; and Courtauld's project for Northern Ireland is for an integrated textile plɛnt in which there will be a spinning element. regarās (a), the industry admit (para 24) that the Indian and Pakistan schemes they describe are "recent", not current, but if there is subsidisation, then the answer should lie in anti- dumping duties (the industry say that cases in the U.K. have failed to satisfy the criterion that action would be in the national interest, so presumably they have tried this).
AB
5. Apart from the inherent weakness of the industry's case, there are strong objections to a continuation of
on cotton yarn:-
(a)
(b)
9.5.
It would be likely to lead to serious difficulties with the Community (do doubt CRE3 will be commenting on this).
It would not go very well with our arguments in the Textiles Working Group in favour of a liberal policy. (The Commission's draft mandate for the GATT Working Party as it stands at present includes the proposal that existing q.r. which do not satisfy the criteria in the new Textiles Agreement for the composition of new restrictions which CTD admit that the yarn re- strictions do not should be phased out over three or possibly two years, with removal of of all restrictions in the first year and in the first two. CTD on the contrary speak simply of applying the usual growth factor 1% per annum cyer the next three years).
-
(c) It would be inequitable to India, Pakistan, and Hong Hong
whose potential market would be taken up by the Mediterranean suppliers. And indeed, if the Asian countries were unrestricted, presumably some of their gain would be at the expense of the Mediterranean and not of U.K. spinners.
3/.....