body which would consider cases put by the Americans on specific items in the non-cotton textile field. The idea would be that subject to scrutiny, approval might be given to the United States to operate import restraints (or reach volun- tary export restraint agreements with her suppliers) on items where the United States had a case not necessarily strictly conforming to Article X1X of the GATT, but of that general
character.
(vi) The 2.3.0. would be reluctant to see bilateral restraints agreed covering a large proportion of United States trade in textiles, without bringing them in some way within the framework of the GATT.
Line for the U.K.
12. The immediate question is to what extent we can go along with the above line of thought of the 3.3.0. At first sight it is open to the following objections:
(i) It is unlikely to satisfy the Americans. It is true that on his visit to London on 7th November Mr. Gilbert, U.S. Special Representative for Trade Negotiations, said that the Americans were prepared to contemplate a "comprehensively selective" solution; but he added that the emphasis was on the word "comprehensive". While the global ceilings which they had proposed to Hong Kong were not included in their latest
proposals to the Japanese, the extent of the trigger points they have in mind seems to amount to a comprehensive restraint
proposal.
(ii)
The proposal might risk giving the impression
that some relaxation of the criteria of Article XlX as it
stands is intended. This would open the door to pressures
from other industries and in other countries for the freer use
of this Article. It might, however, be pointed out that the criteria of Article X1X are in fact very ill-defined, and any action under the present proposal would be subject to study on a case-by-case basis. This hardly amounts to significant relaxation, although the amount of relaxation involved would be more considerable if, as appears to be the case, the proposal also involves setting aside the normal Article X1X requirement
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