Products in these 2 Groups accounted for about 10% by weight of total UK low- cost imports in 1977.
Cate,ory 5 covers all other products where existing trade is at very low levels. These accounted for less than 4% by weight of UK low-cost imports in 1976.
As
a rule there will be no immediate restraints for products in this category (ie they will go into the basket). But there will be provision for the EEC to take immediate action if imports of any product from one of the suppliers shows signs of reaching disruptive levels.
Growth rates for products under restraint
8 Again these will be determined first by the sensitivity of the product (overall growth rates for restrained suppliers of each product will be related to the level of import penetration in the EEC for the product); and secondly on the significance of the supplier under restraint (major suppliers of each product will generally receive lower than average growth rates).
9 In most cases growth will be offered on the basis of 1976 trade levels, ie with a few exceptions the ERC does not propose to respect existing quota access where quotas have been under-used. For some products dominant suppliers will be cut back below 1976 trade levels.
10 Within each product category it is intended that growth rates should be established as follows:
Category 1 the overall Community growth rate for low-cost imports of each product will be determined by the objective of stabilising EEC import penetration more or less at existing levels. For products where import penetration in the Community is highest cotton fabrics and woven shirts and blouses the intention is to allow no increase in import penetration at all during the lifetime of the next MFA. For other products penetration in the Community will be allowed to rise by a maximum of 0.5% a year, but this should still allow scope for domestic prod- uction for the home market to increase. Within this scheme the largest suppliers of particular products will in many cases be offered annual growth rates of O or 0.5%. And the three dominant suppliers of textiles to the Community Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan - will be asked to accept initial quota levels for 1978 for some products which are substantially below 1976 import levels. In this way it is intended to make room for new suppliers without threatening the overall limit.
Category 2 no overall limit will be placed on low-cost imports into the Community, but growth rates for restrained suppliers will be considerably below the minimum of 6% and in some cases for the UK as low as 2% or less. Again the largest supplier. of particular products will be offered below average growth rates, in a number of cases as low as 0.5%.
Categories 3 and 4 growth rates will be generally in the runge 6-8% but larger suppliers will be offered less than the average.
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