TNAG-0388-FCO40-434-Exports-of-knitwear-from-Hong-Kong-to-the-UK-1973 — Page 15

CP

The Chairman of the Knitting

Industries Federation

The Chairman of the National Union of

Hosiery and Knitwear Workers

I have given careful consideration to the case for quantitative

restraints on imports of knitted underwear and outerwear from

Hong Kong and Taiwan presented in your memorandum of 11 October,

and I was most grateful to the representatives of the Knitting

Industries Federation, and the National Union of Hosiery and

Knitwear Workers and the British Textile Confederation who further

developed the case when they came to see me on 18 December.

The Government remain convinced of the need for a viable textile

industry in the UK and indeed for a viable textile industry

throughout the European Community. We think it essential, however,

that our policies, and those of the Community as a whole, should be

directed to the development of those forms of textile production

which are capable of viability with the projection of a moderate

tariff. It would serve neither the expansion of real wealth in

this country nor our interest in the economic growth and political

stability of developing countries if we tried to protect ourselves

indefinitely by quotas and similar barriers against imports of

goods which we could only go on producing ourselves with the benefit

of such protection. In his letter to the President of the British

Textile Confederation of 10 August 1972 ta the Minister for

Industrial Development recognised that quantitative restraints

against disruptive textile imports would be justified in order,

for example, to enable potentially viable sectors of industry to

become so or to prevent unemployment or other social hardship

in industries facing decline. But such restraints should be Uniteä

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