TNAG-0142-FCO40-178-Long-term-policy-on-International-trade-in-textiles-1969 — Page 40

Conclusion

14. All the likely outcomes of the present situation evidently have unwelcome features. It may, on the other hand, be said that none of them would necessarily be disastrous from the United Kingdom point of view. The fact that the United States has already been obliged to stall for about a year before pursuing a protectionist path may be claimed as a useful demonstration that no power is in a position to drive a coach and horses through the existing rules of international trade. Furthermore, it is to a large extent outside our own ability to influence events in the direction of one outcome rather than another. A reasonable course of action for the U.K. Delegation would seem to be to go along with the present line of the E.3.C., and establish in the first place to what extent it is acceptable to the United States and Japan. It does not at first sight seem very far removed from the latest Japanese proposal for "multilateral discussion to determine items where injury could be established", although so far the Japanese have sought to interpret the word "multilateral" in an impractical way so as to refer to an arbitrarily restricted group of countries and not to a properly constituted GATT body.

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