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Mr. Jordan said that he thought it would be much safer to ensure that any discussions were limited to textiles only. The proposals for some form of Article XIX action seemed to him to be likely to lead to pressure for similar uncompensated Article XIX action on an ever increasing range of goods which could be made and exported
cheaply by Hong Kong and Japan.
A
Mr. Stewart, reverting to the question of "roll-in", said that in any case the UK would not be prepared to roll in quotas for
cotton and m.m.f. textiles if the CTA were extended to cover the
latter.
Mr. Goldsmith said that since we had abrogated the use of protective quotas on cotton textiles when deciding to introduce a tariff on imports from the Commonwealth, the question of roll-in could not arise for the UK.
Mr. Stewart said that if the US and EEC during the next eighteen months restrained imports of both cotton and non-cotton textiles, then the UK would certainly do so also.
Import
penetration by non-cottons of the UK textiles market was certainly higher than in the EEC. We might thus end up with both tariffs and quotas. He added that the Ministry of Technology wanted any discussion of man-made fibres to take place under GATT auspices and, since M. Long maintained that the Cotton Textile Arrangement was outside GATT, this meant that Mintech would prefer any discussion of m.m.f. not to take place in the CTC.
Mr. Dunnett pointed out that although it was true that some non- members of GATT were parties to the CTA, the Arrangement itself was clearly a GATT instrument and was published as such. The Cotton Textiles Committee was & GATT Committee and reported to the GATT Council and the Contracting Parties.
Mr. Goldsmith said that the latest reports from Geneva about the Japanese discussions with the Americans (telegram No. 641) would justify us in maintaining the line we had taken at the October meeting of the CTC:
/(a)
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(a) We were not convinced that any problem about international
trade in m.m.f. textiles existed.
there was
(b) If it did nevertheless appear that a problem existed, we
would be willing to discuss it.
(c) If the Americans were ready and willing at the December
meeting of the CTC to discuss the question whether or
not there was evidence of a problem, then we should be
ready to take part.
As regards what should be said to Mr. Ernst, he suggested that
our line should be:-
(a) It appears that the Japanese have not so far conceded
anything to the Americans and have followed the UK/EEC
line that there should be multi-lateral discussion to
establish whether a problem existed.
(b) We should therefore stick to our previous line that we
would be prepared to join in any such discussion aimed
at establishing the facts.
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