TNAG-0143-FCO40-179-Exports-of-textiles-to-United-States-of-America-1969 — Page 170

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CONFIDENTIAL

ECO 15/413/3

BRITISH EIID/3SY,

WASHINGTON, D.C.,

4 February, 1969

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U.S. Textile Imports

Please refer to Washington telegram No. 297 and

F.C.0. telegram to Washington No. 236.

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Alec Hermann and I duly called on Ellsworth this morning. He was accompanied by his deputy, Mr. Hoffman, and by two other members of his staff, Dr. Whitehead and Mr. Rose. In response to my question he confirmed that one of his jobs was to act as the President's trouble-shooter;

apart from textiles he is handling the question of Pacific air routes and, as he put it, in three months' time he might find himself in Cleveland sorting out civil rights. We had been warned that he would listen more than he talked. He emphasised at the

he was there

outset that he would be unable to say very much; to carry out the President's wishes. He listed attentively to what we had to say, and I am fairly certain that he took it all in. But we were unable to draw him very far.

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I opened by saying that we were not unaware of the pressures which the domestic textile industry was applying; but the United States was an important market for our textile industries and, along with other countries with a major interest in the market, we were watching closely for the firet signs of the new Administration's thinking on foreign trade policy. Ellsworth replied that the President's reference in his Inaugural Address to a world open to the exchange of goods was deliberate and should be taken as an indication of his general outlook. At the same time there were his campaign commitments to the textile industry to be honoured (Ellsworth did not explain just what Mr. Nixon regarded himself as being bound to). The problem was still being studied and no decisions had yet been taken. He could say, however, that the only export limitation under consideration was one by foreign governments; voluntary restraints by foreign industries were not in question. The choice might lie between such limitation and runaway legislation" for import quotas.

G. J. McMahon, Esq., C.B., C.M.G.,

Board of Trade.

cc's:

R.G. Britten, Esq., Trade Policy Dept., F.C.O.

It

F.H. Jackson, Esq., 0.3.3., UKDEL E.E.C., Brussels

P.H.R. Marshall, Esq., UKIIS, Geneva

P. Jordan, Esq., Commerce and Industry Dept., Hong Kong Commercial Department, British Embassy, Paris

Commercial Department, British Embassy, Rome Commercial Department, British Embassy, Bonn

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CONFIDENTIAL