TNAG-0628-FCO40-776-Effect-of-GATT-Multi-Fibre-Arrangement-on-Hong-Kong-negotiat-1977 — Page 197

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While those meetings provided delegations with the information which they needed in order to be able to decide their positions for the Council's discussions, they did not enable a solution acceptable to all delegations and the Commission to be arrived at. There remained two major problems to be resolved:

the scope of stabilization which all delegations and the Commission recognized would be needed in the event of cumulative market disruption (see 5. below), viz.:

= stabilization at the penetration levels already reach or

= a more flexible definition of stabilization;

the method to be followed in order to cope effectively with a cumulative market disruption situation (see 3. below), viz.:

or

setting country-by-country import possibilities (bilateral quotas)

introducing a single measure (global quotas) covering all low-price supplier countries.

It is therefore up to the Council to work out a common position which would enable it to authorize the Commission to begin the Geneva

negotiations on renewal of the Multifibre Arrangement; the start of those negotiations has been delayed as a result of the Community's inability so far to define its position.

The position regarding this matter, which raises problems of

considerable import for the Community's commercial policy, for its relations with developing countries in particular and for its industrial policy on textiles, is set out in 3. to 5. below.

s/670 e/77 (COMER 136) lby/SMS/paz

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