TNAG-0629-FCO40-777-Effect-of-GATT-Multi-Fibre-Arrangement-on-Hong-Kong-negotiat-1988 — Page 163

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For Release on 29th July, 1977.

New HK/US Textile Agreement

The Commerce and Industry Department today made

public the main terms of the new HK-US textile agreement which

is expected to be formally signed soon.

A spokesman for the Department said that while some

minor points of wording have still to be resolved before the

agreement can be formally signed, the substance of the agreement

is not going to be changed.

"In the interest of the trade which has to rlen its

production and sales several months ahead, the department feels

that it is now necessary to let people know what to expect,"

the spokesman said.

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Commenting on the agreement, the Acting Director of

Commerce and Industry, Mr. Bill Dorward, said:" We are never

happy to enter into agreements to restrain our textile exports.

This one is no exception."

r. Dorward noted that the terms of the new agreement

were more restrictive than those in the current one.

This is especially so in regard to growth, where annual

increases in quotas are currently 6.25 percent. For the first year of the new agreement the aggregate limit will be 958 million square yards, only 1.5 percent higher than the limit for the last

year of the current agreement.

For the last four years of the five-year agreement, the

overall annual growth rate will be six percent.

"It must be remembered, of course, that these are com-

pound growth rates and on a base already approaching one billion

square yards a year", Mr. Dorward said.

"But the bite comes in some of the categories in great- est demand, where the annual growth will be only three percent.