TNAG-0142-FCO40-178-Long-term-policy-on-International-trade-in-textiles-1969 — Page 209

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31.

The figures suggest that the United States would probably be able to justify the imposition of restrictions on imports of two or three items if they were prepared to invoke Article XIX. Their refusal to make use of the established procedures to deal with cases of genuine difficulty is undoubtedly political and it is suggested that any compromise which gave them a free hand to enter into bilateral agreements would be contrary to the Decision of 19th November 1960; would create problems for other contracting parties; and would undermine the authority of the G.A.T.T.

32.*

This leads to the conclusion that our

policy should be :-

a)

to propose the dismantlement of quotas on cotton textiles over a period of three years. Any restrictions which remained in force after 30th September, 1973 would have to be justified under Article XIX of the G.A.T.T.;

b) to insist that any new restrictions on cotton textiles (or other goods, such as umbrellas) should be dealt with under Article XIX;

On hon - cstten

c) to oppose the imposition of new or the ladites. extension of existing restraints unless and until these had been justified under Article XIX and applied non-discriminately

a)

to accept the possibility that several counties, including the U.K., would be able to make a reasonable case under Article XIX for the imposition of restrictions on imports of particular products, e.g. shirts and sweaters, regardless of the fibre content.

33.

The objective should be to force a discussion in the G.A.T.T. under Article XIX before the Americans decide to act unilaterally. The Americans would almost certainly not agree at this stage to a discussion of their case on, say, shirts and sweaters. On the other hand, the Canadians told us in lay that they were con- sidering whether to raise their case on polyester/cotton

/products