CONFIDENTIAL
greatest store. We will not know the exact price until COREPER on 9 December. However the Commission have given Member States the
following preliminary figures:
Cotton yarn (total extra 6,000-8,000 tonnes)
Brazil
Egypt
3,000 tonnes
Pakistan
India
2,000 tonnes
1,000-1,500 tonnes
250 tonnes
Cotton cloth (total 11-12,500 tonnes)
Brazil
Egypt
Pakistan
India
4,800 tonnes
2,000 tonnes
1,000-2,000 tonnes
2,500 tonnes
The Commission have said it might also be necessary to provide a further 1,500 tonnes of cotton cloth for Tunisia and 1,000 tonnes for Greece and Portugal combined.
4. Over the months, UK Ministers have stressed in the Council that the UK cotton spinning sector is in a state of acute crisis and they have given public commitments to the Lancashire spinners that the Government will adopt a particularly tough negotiating stance for this product.
5.
Ministers, including the Prime Minister, have agreed that as far as it is possibly consistent with the overall objective of providing better protection for the Community's textile industry, more favour- able treatment will be given to the poorest developing countries, especially India and Pakistan.
6. The crucial question about the price to be paid for agreement with the four countries mentioned is how much will go to the UK out of the figures in paragraph 3 above, which are for the whole Community. The normal procedure would be to apply the Community's "burden- sharing formula" which would give the UK a disproportionately high share from those countries from which our imports are traditionally low (particularly Brazil) and a disproportionately low share from those from which our imports are historically high (India and Pakistan). However there will almost certainly be a bargaining
-2- CONFIDENTIAL
/session
!