TNAG-0386-FCO40-432-Exports-of-non-cotton-textiles-from-Hong-Kong-to-the-EEC-1973 — Page 26

TEXTILE WORKING PARTY

CONFIDENTIAL

FREE CIRCULATION OF TEXTILES IN THE ENLARGED EEC

REVIEW OF TACTICS

1 INTRODUCTION. For over a year we have recognised

that the progressive establishment of genuine free

circulation of textiles imported from low-cost sources

offers us the only realistic hope of evening out conditions

of competition facing textile manufacturers in Member

countries.

But although the objective of free circulation,

apart from being implicit in the Treaty of Rome, has been

accepted by Comitextil, and its main constituent

organisations, by the Commission (obviously) and by the

Member State governments, no practical progress has been

It is timely to review whether we could do more

to move things along because:

made.

2. the Commission (Mr Meynell) are at last showing

signs of wanting seriously to address the problem (but do not quite know where to begin);

b.

the British Textile Confederation suggests that our insistence on liberal principles, selectivity and justification for restraints in the working

out of Community mandates to negotiate with third countries is blocking the development of a Community textile trade policy and thereby making progress towards free circulation impossible. In particular, the BTC criticises our stand on the mandate for non-cotton restraints against Hong Kong, where we have firmly opposed any sort of Community restraint that would freeze imports

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