11.
Thirdly, what is true of cotton fabrics is generally true
of the other products subject to the agreement: I repeat that in
1978 we should be able to ship as much as we did in 1977, though,
as I have already said, that is so only because 1977 was a bad year
for our textile trade, and we shall not be able to expand at the
same rate as we have been used to in the past, if and when demand
picks up. Nonetheless in many categories we have secured respectable
respectable in terms of the MFA that is and some growth
rates as high as 8%. The lowest is 0.25%. In the US Agreement the
but that overall limit is there, don't growth ranges from 1% to 6%
forget.
limits
-
-
Finally, we secured export control of the quotas. I
need not spell out to such an informed audience how important that
is. What I can say is that it took weeks to secure what should
morally be our right in the first place. The importance of this
for us was clear to the EEC, which tried hard to make us bargain for
it. They produced a draft text which Mr. Mills described as an
import control agreement with slight technical assistance at the
export end.
This draft text was itself a major stumbling block.
we had objections to every single paragraph of it and I think it
says much for our team that we came away eventually with a reasonably
satisfactory text.
I think I have said enough to show that the outcome was
in the end not so bad as we first thought it might be. I think
the difference can be attributed to three factors:
first, perhaps, some realisation on the other side
that their demands really were too extreme;
secondly, the Governor's personal intervention and
the Hong Kong textile industry mission to London; and
finally, the skill and determination of our negotiators
in Brussels.