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items in strong demand that the quota limits have been of
any significance at all and indications are that this will
remain the case for the rest of this year.
Thirdly, and following on my second point, the
pattern of our current trade gives the lie to those
protectionist claims that importers' problems would dissolve
They
if Hong Kong and other major suppliers would accept a
reduction in our negotiated market access rights.
confuse, either accidentally or deliberately, the existence
of access rights, or quotas as they are more commonly called,
with the actual trade done. It is patently obvious from the
figures we have heard here today that the mere existence of
quotas, or growth rates on them, does not cause damage to
domestic industries. But to those who might be tempted to
argue that under-utilisation of quotas constituted a case
for reducing their limits, I would answer "No, it constitutes
a case for removing them".
The Hong Kong textile industry has learned to live
One might almost say it grew up with them,
with restraints.
for they now have a history of nearly twenty years. Since
1960, the majority of trading nations have recognised formally
that special problems attach to world trade in textiles which
call for special solutions
solutions recognised as not
being applicable to other areas of trade. That is, I suggest,
a most important qualification and one we should not lose
sight of.
It might very reasonably be asked, why, in the
middle of 1977, there should be an apparently mounting tide
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