§ 12. Mr. Thorntonasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will make available in the Library copies of the agreement reached at Geneva recently between the major cotton textile and importing countries; and if he will make a statement on the agreement.
§ Mr. MaudlingYes, Sir. These arrangements, which were agreed ad referendum, include a short-term arrangement for the year beginning 1st October, 1961, providing for increased access to certain markets at present restricted and for bilateral negotiations for avoidance of disruption in markets which are not restricted. A G.A.T.T. Cotton Textiles Committee will be established and will meet in the autumn to consider a longer term solution to the problems of international trade in cotton textiles.
§ Mr. ThorntonAlthough I have not seen the full text of the agreement, it appears to me that in the short term it will have the effect of freezing American imports at about one-twentieth of the level of domestic production and freezing imports into this country at approximately half of our level of domestic production.
§ Mr. MaudlingThe detailed effects need a considerable amount of working out, but on balance it will help to produce a certain increased stability in the international trade in these commodities.
§ Mr. S. SilvermanDoes the right hon. Gentleman realise that while the details are being worked out a good deal of alarm and despondency is being spread 1626 throughout the textile industry in this country? Has he considered what would be the effects of the agreement now made if this country persisted in its attempts to become part of the Common Market? Would that mean that there would be a Completely free flow of European textiles into Britain?
Mr. MandlingOn the whole, the effect of our relations with the Common Market, which are industrialised countries, is rather different from the question of the imports of textiles from low-cost producers, which is that mainly in the mind of the G.A.T.T. discussions.