May 18, 1984

WORKING PARTY TO CONSIDER TEXTILES AND CLOTHING TRADE ISSUES.

GENEVA, MAY 16 (IFDA/CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN)—A working party is to be set up in the GATT to formulate the recommendations of the Council for liberalisation of the international trade in textiles and clothing.

This is one of the major points in the GATT work programme to be considered at the annual meeting of the Contracting Parties in 1984 November.

The Ministerial declaration envisaged liberalisation of world trade in textiles and clothing and an eventual return to full GATT provisions.

The Multifibre Arrangement (MFA), due to expire in 1986, is a major derogation from the GATT provisions, and Third World countries have been long pressing for a full application of GATT rules in this sector.

On Tuesday, the GATT Council discussed this issue on the basis of a secretariat note. Also before the council were reports of the textile surveillance body on the working of the MFA, and the report of the textiles committee.

In its reports the TSB has been very critical of the manner in which the present MFA was being implemented and imposed by the importing countries, and in a more restrictive manner than previously.

The report of the textiles committee mainly dealt with the complaints of the Third World countries over the new U.S. restrictions on textile imports imposed in December 1983.

Pakistan, speaking for the Third World members of the MFA, referred to their concerns over the U.S. measures expressed at the textile committee meetings earlier this year.

He underlined that under the new procedures, there had been 84 calls for consultations by the U.S.A., and these had covered many different exporters and products.

Generally speaking, the requirement to demonstrate market disruption, as a pre-requisite for consultations and restraints, had not been met by the U.S.A., he complained.

The U.S.A., while expressing sympathy to the Third World concerns, justified the U.S. actions on the ground that imports into the U.S.A. in 1983 had been 25 percent more than in the previous year, and in the first quarter of 1984 it was 38 percent more. Of the last, 70 percent came from Third World sources.

The U.S. delegate, who had assured at the textiles committee that the new procedures were only for "internal monitoring" and the U.S.A. stood by its MFA commitments, made no defence of the U.S. actions in calling for "consultations" without prior proof of market disruption required by the MFA.