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(c) They are keenly aware of the danger that
any request to the Six for special arrange- ments for Hong Kong is likely to stimulate the latter to seek protection from Hong
Kong competition, e.g. by a demand for a market disruption clause or severe origin criteria. For this reason they displayed a clear preference for course (1) above, perhaps coupled with course (v): but they
stressed that their views on this were
preliminary.
(a) They recognise that Association and a
Morocco-type Protocol are both unnegotiable. (e) They themselves drew attention at the consul-
tations to the declining importance for Hong Kong of the British market (whose share of
Hong Kong exports fell from just over 20% in 1960 to about 17% in 1966); and to the
growing importance for her of the markets of
the Six (whose share grew from 5% to 10%
over the same period).
(f) They see no problems for Hong Kong as regards
sterling or immigration.
12. We have heard recently that a further idea which the Hong
Kong authorities are considering is that they should refrain from asking Britain to make any special request in negotiations. This would not be the same as agreeing that we should make no request.
It would rather be a way of leaving us with the whole responsibility of deciding how to handle Hong Kong in negotiations, and the whole
of the blame if things went wrong.
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