MFA and Article 115: Two Complementary EC Non-tariff Barriers

The EC was instrumental in launching the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) in 1974. This was viewed as an accomplishment towards bringing the ever-expanding hotchpotch of different bilateral trade restraints for textiles and textile products under one set of rules, even if this meant opting out of the GATT framework. After all, the multiplicity of trade barriers engendered throughout the reign of the Long-term Agreement (that is, since 1962) was threatening to make a farce out of the GATT non-discrimination principal upon which the international trading system was based. Thus spinning off such distorting elements into a separate organisation was viewed as a logical move to ensure that non-discrimination could be generally maintained elsewhere. Specifically it was and still is noted that it is not an expressed purpose of the MFA to protect the clothing and textile industries in industrialised countries at the expense of the same industries in developing countries. Rather the MFA was designed to ensure that the advantages to be gained from a more efficient allocation of resources are not jeopardised by ruinous international competition followed by an ensuing wave of protectionist measures that close off export markets to future as well as to existing producers. Based primarily on this line of reasoning the MFA and its predecessors have managed to survive and indeed thrive for almost three decades.