AIDE MEMOIRE
18B
Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs
presents his compliments to the Belgian Ambassador and with reference.
to the Aide Memoire dated the 17th May, 1967, on the subject of the
import into Benelux countries of certain classes of textiles from
Hong Kong, has the honour to state that the Hong Kong authorities:
(1) accept the request for consultations under Article 3 of the
long term arrangement regarding international trade in
cotton textiles of the 1st October, 1962;
(2) will enter into consultations as soon as the Aide Memoire
has been received and studied in Hong Kong;
(3) will, as usual, negotiate directly with the Benelux
Governments and would welcome a Benelux negotiating team
in Hong Kong in the immediate future;
(4) question the need for the imposition of import restrictions.
prior to the consultations and would point out that the
situation envisaged, under paragraph 2 of Article 3, should
not arise provided that the Benelux Governments keep their
requests for consultations confidential, as the shipping
time to Rotterdam is approximately 30 days by which time
the consultations should have begun;
(5) in the circumstances hope that the Benelux Governments
will agree to lift the restrictions at least until the consultations have taken place.
COMMONWEALTH OFFICE,
19th May, 1967.