GUNA TAL
than new investment.
Courtaulds have announced their
Other
intention of setting up new plant in N Ireland and North
West England to produce an additional 50-60m sq yd of polyester/cotton and polyester/viscose fabrics, with the prospect of a further large new plant in W Cumberland. companies are making smaller but significant additions to their capacity. It is not too late for firms to revise their plans and cancel projects if they concluded that imports from sources which have been brought under restraint were simply being replaced by shipments from other developing countries. Meanwhile, import penetration from all sources of the UK polyester/cotton market has reached the level of 80 per cent.
10.
Further restraints should not have any significant short- term effect on prices. The high level of demand in other markets, coupled with price restraints in the UK, have led to the situation where for the present UK cloth is comparably priced or even a little cheaper than imported cloth. While import prices will probably ease to some extent with the slackening of world demand, the continuing high cost of raw fibre will prevent this effect from being marked. Thus, it is unlikely that introducing new but relatively minor restrictions on cloth supplies to the UK will cause UK prices to get appreciably out of line with world prices.
Consultations with the EEC
11. There is at present no common policy on imports of polyester/cotton textiles into the Community and we are free to take measures unilaterally to restrict imports from the three countries concerned, subject only to the right of our partners to require consultations as provided for by the Council decision of 19 December 1972. We would welcome such consultations and consider that we would be able fully to demonstrate that the action which we were taking was consistent with the principles which we expect to see embodied in a new GATT International Textiles Agreement, and to which we have given our support. While our Community obligations do not prevent us from introducing new restraints unilaterally, we are not free to negotiate bilaterally with supplying countries on our own account. Consultations with the
countries concerned are not ruled out, however, and our aim
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