Aug 2, 1984

NEW TEXTILES BODY TO FIGHT PROTECTIONISM AGAINST EXPORTERS.

NEW DELHI, JULY 31 (IPS) – An international bureau for textiles and clothing will be set up in Geneva soon to formalise cooperation among developing countries exporting textiles, a meeting of 20 textile exporting countries has decided.-

The textile exporters met in Karachi, Pakistan July 21-25. The documents from their meeting have just been made available here.-

The immediate task of the international bureau for textiles and clothing will be to strengthen the negotiating position of the developing exporting countries through effective coordination and technical support.-

The meeting was convened to review the situation in inter-national trade in textiles, including the operation of the Multi-fibre Arrangement (MFA), and especially the rising tide of protectionism in the developed countries and proliferation of restrictions on textile imports.-

Far from receiving the special treatment provided for in article 6 of the MFA, new entrants to the textile trade, small suppliers and cotton producing countries have become targets of discriminatory restrictions, the meeting found.-

Imports of wool products have been singled out for excessively restrictive treatment, the report added, despite the continuing absence of justifying evidence.-

The most recent restrictive measures have been imposed against the background of "established and soundly based" economic recovery in the textile and clothing and other sectors in the developed countries, and particularly the United States.-

Ministers attending the 1982 meeting of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade pledged the GATT Contracting parties to examine expeditiously "... modalities of further trade liberalisation in textiles and clothing".-

The GATT Ministers’ declaration included among the "modalities", "the possibilities for bringing about the full application of GATT provisions to this sector of trade".-

The Karachi workshop was called to discuss appropriate approaches toward implementing the Ministers’ decision.-

It was urged by Pakistan Finance Minister Ghulam Ishaq Khan to "press for the achievement of full adherence to the principles, rules and objectives of the GATT".-