TNAG-0172-FCO40-208-United-Kingdom-Productivity-and-Efficiency-Study-effect-on-H-1969 — Page 22

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DRAFT STATEMENT

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The Government have now completed their examination

of the Textile Council's Report on Cotton and Allied

Textiles.

2. The Report addressed a number of recommendations

to both the Government and the industry, and these have

been the subject of continuing consultations with the

Council.

3. The recommendations to the industry concentrated in

particular on the need to increase the rate of re-equipment,

extend multi-shift working, and develop closer technical

and commercial links between the different stages of

production and marketing. I attach the greatest importance

to these three requirements and am working closely with

the Textile Council on their implementation.

4.

The main recommendations to the Government concerned

future policy on imports and financial assistance to

encourage re-equipment.

5. On import policy, the Council recommended that the

present quota system should be replaced by a tariff on

imports of cotton textiles from the

Commonwealth preference

area at a rate not less than 85% of the most-fav ured-

n ation duties. On cotton cloth, the main item of trade,

this would mean a duty of 15%. The Council believe that a

tariff would be a better solution both for the industry

and the country than a continuation of quotas. It

would offer a margin of protection that was both stable

and predictable, so enabling the industry to plan

ahead with confidence.

Quotas, on the other hand,

were likely to prove even less effective in the future

/ than

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