Tattersalls
PA (120)
Weekly Survey of the Textile Scene
F. W. TATTERSALL LTD. WOOLWICH HOUSE
.51
L
61 MOSLEY STREET
MANCHESTER M2 3HU
061-236 8757
12 AUG 1969
No. 1,435
HKK 6/548/8
29th July, 1969.
ACTION AT LAST.
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One of the comments on the Government decision to replace quotas on imports of cotton textile goods by tariffs from the beginning of 1972 was: "They asked for it now they've got it." Perhaps to one outside the immediate confines of the trade - and particularly what has come to be regarded as the "Lancashire" trade this may seem to be the case, but it does not directly fit into the Textile Council's recommendations or the general feeling in many parts of the industry.
This viewpoint was aptly summed-up by the British Textile Employers' Association which contended that there should have been a limited transitional period with both quotas and tariffs in operation. The statement went on: "After the introduction of the proposed tariffs, which in the case of some types of textiles are quite inadequate by themselves, it is absolutely essential that there should be active safeguards against disruption of important sectors and sections of the U.K. industry by low-cost imports, often assisted by dumping, dual pricing and other unfair trade practices.
Uncommitted commentators are now taking the attitude that textiles are "on trial", facing a challenge on ground on which the industry has chosen to fight. While this is not entirely incorrect, it simplifies the situation in a manner which avoids all the complex- itios of an industry which comprises a multitude of processes.
Dangers Ahead.
T
Within the past few weeks it has been widely forecast that the introduction of a 15% tariff on all cotton cloths will certainly be inadequate to protect certain constructions and that the loss of the categorisation system through the abandonment of quotas will leave the field clear for foreign suppliers to attack and knock out individual sections at their leisure.
Some of the comments following the Board of Trade announce- ment have been manifestly unfair. To declare as an influential daily paper has done - that "the industry has steadily become more inefficicnt" and that "if the Lancashire industry were to find itself thrown into the Common Market tomorrow it would be itself highly uncompetitive", are statements which have no justification whatever.
While the decision is at least welcome in that it resolves the uncertainty which seemed likely to last for a few months until the Government made up its mind, it still leaves a number of points in abeyance. From 1972 onwards the Government, it said, would consider the use of quotas only on particular products under the long-term cotton arrangement of G.A.T.T. and only if total imports of cotton textiles rose significantly above the present level and caused disruption to the market in those particular products.
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