TNAG-0762-FCO40-966-Effect-of-GATT-Multi-Fibre-Arrangement-(MFA)-on-Hong-Kong-ex-1978 — Page 192

11.

Thirdly, what is true of cotton fabrics is generally true

of the other products subject to the agreement: I repeat that in

1978 we should be able to ship as much as we did in 1977, though,

as I have already said, that is so only because 1977 was a bad year

for our textile trade, and we shall not be able to expand at the

same rate as we have been used to in the past, if and when demand

picks up. Nonetheless in many categories we have secured respectable

respectable in terms of the MFA that is and some growth

rates as high as 8%. The lowest is 0.25%. In the US Agreement the

but that overall limit is there, don't growth ranges from 1% to 6%

forget.

limits

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-

Finally, we secured export control of the quotas. I

need not spell out to such an informed audience how important that

is. What I can say is that it took weeks to secure what should

morally be our right in the first place. The importance of this

for us was clear to the EEC, which tried hard to make us bargain for

it. They produced a draft text which Mr. Mills described as an

import control agreement with slight technical assistance at the

export end.

This draft text was itself a major stumbling block.

we had objections to every single paragraph of it and I think it

says much for our team that we came away eventually with a reasonably

satisfactory text.

I think I have said enough to show that the outcome was

in the end not so bad as we first thought it might be. I think

the difference can be attributed to three factors:

first, perhaps, some realisation on the other side

that their demands really were too extreme;

secondly, the Governor's personal intervention and

the Hong Kong textile industry mission to London; and

finally, the skill and determination of our negotiators

in Brussels.