was established by MFA. Although it was extended three times and became more rigid, the completion of MFA in ten years has been debated in the Uruguay Round (1986-).

It should be noted that restraining effect of the MFA is different between countries. Table 13 shows that the portion of textiles and apparel imports covered by quotas, and the average degree of quota utilization, for all supplier countries that account for 1 per cent or more of the US imports of textiles or apparel. It is clear that the Asian NIEs countries-South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong- are tightly controlled in both the share of trade subject to quotas and the degree of quota utilization (although the latter is low for EC imports from Hong Kong). However, for many exporting countries including the ASEAN countries, China, and Japan, it can be conjectured that the MFA quota are in effect not binding since they are not fully utilized. They have lower shares of exports covered by quotas in the US market, and lower utilization rates than the Asian NIEs. In other words, the Asian NIEs are restricted discriminatively from the other exporters. Thus the export restraining effect of the MFA may be clearly understood by comparing the changing trade and production among the Asian NIEs, ASEAN, and China. Furthermore, a comparison between the MFA enforcing importers, such as the US and EC and a non-enforcing importer, Japan, in import changes shows the domestic production protecting effect of MFA.

So far, it has become clear that the regionally managed trade has fostered the intraregional trade and limited the one in inter-regional level in the textile industry. MFA, which is likely to exclude the Asian exports from trade in North America and Western European regions, is given as an example of the managed trade in textile industry in the 1980s.

## Cotton fabrics

(1) Phase of development in the east Asian country

Domestic production in the Asian NIEs, ASEAN and China increased steadily. In particular, in ASEAN, it increased so markedly as to catch up with the NIEs' level. However, export of ASEAN was equivalent only to 1/4 of the export of the Asian NIEs, partly because of their big domestic consumptions. Figure 7 shows that the X/S ratios in Thailand and Indonesia were still low compared to South Korea, although M/D ratios became very low in the 1980s. This means that the ASEAN countries were in the early part of the 'export' stage.

It should be noted that the Asian NIEs as a whole was a net importing entity in 1987. However, this does not mean the Asian NIEs was in the 'reverse import' stage. It was Hong Kong alone that became a net import country, because export from China via Hong Kong to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia grew, markedly increasing Hong Kong's imports from China. South Korea and Taiwan held big net exports. Figure 7 shows that the X/S ratio of South Korea was still high in the 1980s. However, export toward the Asian NIEs from China, which was a low wage country, increased markedly. Furthermore, its domestic consumption growth rate (66%) and import growth rate (350%) were larger than domestic production growth rate. These show that the Asian NIEs' low wage competitiveness declined gradually.

On the other hand Japan became a net importer in the early part of the 1980s. Figure 7 shows that Japan entered ‘reverse import’ stage. The US increased its trade deficit, and its M/D ratio also rose in the 1980s.