TNAG-0244-FCO40-280-Exports-of-textiles-from-Hong-Kong-to-USA-1970 — Page 74

CONFIDENTIAL

U.S. IMPORTS OF NON-COTTON TEXTILES

The proposals for comprehensive restraints on non-cotton textiles put by the U.S. Government to the Governments of Japan and other countries in the Far East could, if insisted upon, lead to a serious setback to the pursuit of fuller and freer trade, based on the G.A.T.T., which has been the common objective of the U.S. and U.K.

Governments for many years.

2. The G.A.T.T. recognises that circumstances may arise when restrictions on imports of particular products may

be imposed as emergency measures;

but that resort to such

measures should only be considered where increased imports are causing or threatening to cause serious injury to

domestic producers.

3. Injury is normally judged by reference to such factors as the levels of domestic production, profits, prices and employment in relation to import performance. The available information does not suggest that the increase in U.S. imports of non-cotton textiles in the last two years, though large in relation to imports in earlier years, has caused or threatens to cause injury to the U.S. industry as a whole that would warrant the introduction of widespreaŭ

restraints of the kind that have been proposed. The

increased imports in 1968 and 1969 have come at a time when

demand and consumption in the U.S.A. have been high; tho

/growth

MIDL