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Resistance to Exports
Employment and Wage Rates
30. The success of Hong Kong exports has led to counter
pressure from industries in importing countries for import
restrictions on Hong Kong goods. This pressure first
developed in the field of cotton textiles and exports of such
products to a number of countries are now restricted by
agreements negotiated under the provisions of the GATT long
term cotton textiles arrangements. There are also quota
restrictions on exports of cotton textiles to Britain;
these
will be replaced by a tariff with effect from 1 January 1972.
Resistance to Hong Kong's developing exports of other products
is also growing.
However wages have risen rapidly in recent
years and Hong Kong textile exporters are now meeting stiff
competition from countries such as Korea and Taiwan where
wages are considerably lower.
LABOUR CONDITIONS AND RELATIONS
31. Of rather more than 11⁄2 million people at work in Hong
Kong in 1970, 617,000 are in the manufacturing industries.
Unemployment is low. The index of wage rates has more than
doubled since 1959 (1958 = 100; 1969 = 248) and as the cost
of living index has risen much more slowly, real wages have
risen over the period (by an estimated 75%). The shortage
of skilled and semi-skilled labour plus competition among
employers rather than trade union pressures tend to keep
wages rising steadily. In general, wages and conditions of
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