TNAG-0143-FCO40-179-Exports-of-textiles-to-United-States-of-America-1969 — Page 167

WASHINGTON

3/2/69

KESTRICTED

22

WASHINGTON

3rd February, 1969.

6

Your telegrams 249 and 297.

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Voluntary restraint on textile exports to U.S.A.

raises very serious problems both practically and

politically. Same objections of principle would apply

to a voluntary scheme for textiles as we saw in the case

of steel. Further, in the unlikely event of other

countries agreeing, and being able, to limit effectively

their textile exports to U.S., we and no doubt

others would have to insist on similar restraints on

suppli s to us in order to protect our own markets from

goods shut out of U.S. The inevitable result would be

to set off a series of import restrictions in many

hardly countries which could prestak

items picked by V.S.

be limited to the textile

2.

Apart from these serious objections of principle, it

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would be quite impracticable to introduce voluntary

restriction scheze with expectation that it would

observed by

hundreds of firms which export cloth

garments and other textile manufactures to the U.S.A.