an
As you all know, there has been recently increasing evidence of a significant backward move towards protectionisu in importing countries. Regrettably, some of our trading partners, in an attempt to protect their own domestic industries, have chosen to take unilateral measures which are inconsistent with both the letter and spirit of the kulti-Fibre Arrangement, internationally agreed framework for the regulation of trace in textiles. Examples of such measures are the tariff quotas applied by Australia to a wide range of textile and garment imports and Canada's decision last November to impose global quotas on imports which included items already covered in bilateral agreements negotiated under the MFA with Hong Kong and their exporting countries; and the recent announcements first by France, and later by the EEC on certain, as yet, unclear measures which may affect Hong Kong's exports to the EEC.
These, one may say, are merely isolated instances but taken together, these impositions have certainly caused great anxiety in the textile and garment industry particularly when such developments have taken place at a time when the very future of the MFA itself, which expires at the end of this year, was being debated internationally.
As far as the future of the MFA is concerned,
Hong Kong, in common with the vast majority of other textile exporting countries, favours an extension of the existing Arrangement without modification. Some importing countries, including, in particular the European Economic Community, have sought to renegotiate a new MFA which would enable them to place even more stringent restrictions than before on imports from so-called "low cost suppliers".
wants is to be able to
It seems to me that what the EEC really restrict imports from so-called "low cost regardless of whether each of them
suppliers" as a group, individually is causing or threatening market disruption or posing real risks of market disruption and to limit the growth of imports of so-called "high import penetration" categories to figures well below the internationally agreed minimum of 6%
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