Tuesday, February 26, 1974
ARRANGEMENT REGARDING INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN TEXTILES
The Government of the United Kingdom yesterday (February 25)
acceded to the Arrangement Regarding International Trade in Textiles
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on Hong Kong's behalf.
The Arrangement was concluded on December 20 last year in
Geneva following several months of intensive negotiations among representatives
of some 40 governments, including Hong Kong, under the auspices of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
It runs for four years from January 1, 1974.
The new Arrangement, covering cotton, wool and man-made fibre
textiles, replaces the Cotton Textiles Arrangements which expired on
December 31 1973 after being in effect for over eleven years,
Commenting on the new Arrangement, a spokesman of the Commerce
and Industry Department said that while Hong Kong still believed in free
trade and would prefer to see all such restrictive arrangements removed,
the new torms represented an improvement on the Cotton Textiles Arrangement.
Of particular significance is a provision for a Textiles
Surveillance Body to oversee the workings of the new Arrangement.
Such international supervision will offer a new protection for
the interests of the exporters whose trade is liable to be restricted.
The spokesman