C.S. 166
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their position. There was, therefore, no consensus and, since the GATT operates only on the basis of consensus, the meeting would normally have been regarded as inconclusive. However, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr O. Long, the Director General of the GATT, noted in his summing-up that there had been a request for a protocol to be opened on 15th December 1977 on the basis of the understandings set out in COM. TEX/W/44; and he noted the request as a firm intention by the delegations supporting this document to proceed on that basis. Mr Long subsequently explained that the Textiles Committee as such had reached no decision on the future of the MFA but that, as requested at the meeting, a protocol would be opened for signature on the basis of COM TEX/W/44, and that all those who signed it would bind themselves to deal with each other as regards their textile trade in the manner set out in the protocol.
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Mr Long's closing words were that his own view, not just on textiles but on world trade generally, was that "it is extremely important to make every effort in order that the MFA be extended, failing which we might very well witness the beginning of the disintegration of inter- national trade".
10
The outcome was confusing and far from satisfactory but was, in the circumstances, the best that could have been achieved. If all those who had supported it actually signed the protocol to be opened on 15th December 1977, then the bulk of Hong Kong's textiles exports to the developed countries would be covered by it for four years from 1st January 1978. It is, however, possible that in the end the EEC may not not be prepared to sign the protocol. At the final session of the Textiles Committee meeting, France dissociated itself from the EEC spokeman's position. Subsequently, press reports and other sources confirmed that at a EEC Council of Ministers meeting held on 26th July, the French Foreign Minister had stated that the French Government considered that the EEC Commission had exceeded its mandate in Geneva and that what the Commission had accepted did not offer the EEC sufficient assurance of getting effective safeguards against low- cost suppliers. It was also reported that the EEC Commission was insisting that EEC signature of the protocol would be dependent on satisfactory results being obtained in bilateral negotiations with the main textiles exporting countries before the end of the year. It has even been reported that the French are out to wreck the MFA and would prefer the bilateral negotiations to fail so that the EEC might then apply more restrictive unilateral import measures.
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One thing is clear in the midst of this confusion. Regardless of whether or not a protocol will be opened for signature on 15th December 1977, the future of the MFA will depend very much on the outcome of the
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