TNAG-0175-FCO40-211-Visit-to-UK-by-David-Jordan--Deputy-Director-of-Department-o-1969 — Page 7

Mr. Whitehead intervened here to say that the FCO line was on

the whole closer to that of Hong Kong than to that of the Ministry

of Technology though this was not to say that they were fully in

agreement with either party.

Mr. Stewart said that in his opinion restrictions by the method

of "voluntary restraint" completely outside the rules of GATT would

be a worse blow to GATT than the admission of possibly weak cases

under Article XIX. As for the claim that the Americans could not

be persuaded to use Article XIX, they had of course argued against

the selective approach all along as a matter of policy but this did

not necessarily mean that they would continue to reject the possi-

bility of selective restrictions under Article XIX if they became

convinced that there would be no agreement on any alternative.

The proposal which he would like to put forward was that there should

be agreement that GATT members would be entitled to impose restric-

tions under the provisions of Article XIX and in accordance with

Article XIX criteria of "injury" without compensation or retaliation

provided that in return the importing country was willing to accept

that the restrictions must be strictly temporary that the case

perin

́injury should be subject to international supervision, and that

the restraints should be subject to regular international review.

Mr. Whitehead said that, as regards the question of the selective

approach, he understood that the Americans had suggested to the

Japanese in their talks in Geneva that there should be "trigger

for some items

points"/men

(16

that there should be

some specific ceilings for particular items where restraint would

operate to keep imports below the ceiling); and there would be a

global quota for all other items. In other words they had not so

far show themselves willing to accept restraints on a few items

only.

Mr. Goldsmith said that he did not think that it would be

profitable or possible to pursue further the question of possible

/use