TNAG-0300-FCO40-336-Entitlement-of-Hong-Kong-to-generalized-tariffs-preferences--1971 — Page 45

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not recovered (and indeed has fallen further) this year.

Imports fell in 1969 and 1970, both absolutely and as a share

of the market, But, unlike domestic production, imports of fabrics (though not of yarn) recovered sharply this year; and

as a result are back to the 1968 share (38%) of apparent

consumption. The figures of consumption, production and

inports are summarised in Tables 1 and 2.

10 The labour force in the Lancashire textile industry,

(as Graph A shows) is still running down more slowly than the

Textile Council forecast. But unemployment in the industry,

which in 1969 and 1970 was running at about 2 per cent in the

industry is, on the latest available figure (August 1971) now

ovoz 4 per cent; about 4,500 workers out of a total of

104,000 were then out of work. Moreover, other work is at

the moment hard to find, and total unemployment in tho

Lancashire textile belt is now about 3.8%, or just about the

national average. There has been a spate of mill closures

this year, with more to come, but even so these (Graph, B)

have also not gone as fast as the Textile Council predicted.

11

Surplus capacity has been eliminated too slowly; in

mid-1971 the industry still had 3.4 million spindles compared

with 3.9 million in 1968 and the Council's forecast of 1.7 million.

in 1975. Weaving capacity has come down more quickly, but

almost half the looms are still non-automatio, which is very

high by international standards.

Investment has also boon

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