? E Thornton Dsq CD
Cabinet Office
whitehall
LONDON S W 1
CONFIDENTIAL
227/4/11
IG 205/219/03
15 October 1971
BEC AND COTTON TEXTILES
1. Roy Croft tells me that a meeting of the All Committce is now unlikely to take place until Monday week, so I am sending in my comments on the enclosure to Denman's letter of 14 October in writing rather than troubling you personally with them on the telephone.
2. We should like to see the following alterations made:-
Pace 4.
In line 20 I suggest we should add after the words "should like" the words ", without any free circulation of the goods imported." I think it was agreed at the meeting that if there were free circulation the difficulty foreseen would not arise. In the next sentonce it seems to me on reflection that the first clause and the second point to the argument in two different directions. I suggest we might consider leaving out the words "the stimulus
removed".
Page 5. A small point on the list of countries mentioned in paragraph 9; Ministers may need to have it explained why this is different from the list given on page 4.
Page 6.
In para. 10 alter the words "including three Commonwealth countries" to read "including the three Commonwealth countries who together supply over 80% of our present imports from developing countries.'
Page 7. At the end of para. 10(e) I suggest adding "; and the further prospect of uncertainty till late 1973 about the 1974 arrangements." We must, ask for the last four words of para. 12 to be deleted. The obligations we will undertake towards the EEC cannot possibly include the imposition of quantitative restrictions before the date of our joining the Community.
Page 8.
In lines 10-11 insert "and with the exporting countries" after the words "with the Commission". You definitely mentioned this point yesterday and we do not wich to see it lost from sight.
Add at the end of para. 13 the following sentence: "Commonwealth suppliers, on the other hand, will certainly expect restoration of their present duty-free quotas."
JLF Bulet
c.c. J A Robinson sq (EID, FUC)
G. Denman Roq (UTI).
J Pater Bo
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