At the July meeting it was envisaged that the Brussels Textiles Working Group would resume its work on 11 September. We had intended at that meeting to introduce a paper for consideration at that (and subsequent) meetings of the Textiles Working Group; it would then have been possible to refer at the GSP meeting on the 12 September to our wider proposals already under consideration elsewhere. It now seems clear that the 11 September meeting of the Textiles Working Group will not take place; thus the GSP meeting will be the first public launching of our proposals.
We propose to deliver to the Commission (DG11) on 12 September a paper setting out our comments and proposals. A draft of this is attached as Appendix A. At the GSP meeting (the responsibility of DG3) on that day we propose making a statement on the lines of Appendix B attached and to hand over to DG3 a copy of the paper at Appendix A.
Our paper at Appendix A comments on the whole philosophy of restraints and the shape of the Community's future agreements with supplying countries. Insofar as we make proposals about quotas in Community bilateral agreements with third countries we have a simple essential aim, ie in general to get other members of the Community to take a bit more. We make provision for a vast amount of imports; the 6 (or 7, cr 8) for a considerably smaller amount. Nothing that the Community has done, or has so far shown any sign of doing in the future, can do other than perpetuate this situation of the UK bearing by far the greatest part of the total Community 'burden' of imports. We are not proposing that the UK a back; we are proposing that most of the otherg member states make greater provision for imports. We are proposing
cuts
/growth
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