CONFIDENTIAL
because of language difficulties.
He meant either that imports
from developing countries other than the 77 were excluded from
the developing country statistics on which the calculations of
quotas would be based (and presumably included in imports from
developed countries see para. 2(3) above); or, more radically,
that non-members of the 77 (e.g. Spain, Israel and Portugal)
would not be treated as beneficiaries. On the whole we think that
the first of these alternatives is what he was trying to describe.
Mr. Tran explained that, when the Community submit their "lists" to
the OCD on 1 March, the submission would be very short and would comprise
little more than points (1) to (3) and (7) above, but without details.
3.
When questioned about what would be said on beneficiary countries, he
replied that present intentions were not to mention this point at that stage.
Position of Hong Kong
4. Mr. Tran admitted that the working hypothesis that Hong Kong should be excluded had not yet been changed. However, the feeling was gaining
ground in the Commission that to maintain this position would not be
helpful politically, particularly in relation to the United Kingdom. Fears
were being expressed that, if the U.K. were left to bear the "burden" of
Hong Kong alone, this would inevitably diminish the extent to which she could
participate in a generalised preferences scheme.
Thought was therefore
being given to how something could be done for Hong Kong which would not
create difficulties for the Community as a whole. As regards the Member
States, the Germans and the Dutch were not opposed to the inclusion of Hong Kong and were even pressing for it, probably at least partly in the hope that their relatively large imports from Hong Kong would then be spread a little more over the rest of the Community. The Belgians and Italians
were opposed to inclusion but, in Tran's view, they could be pushed. The
real difficulty was the opposition of the French. Tran considered that
the U.K. should now begin to exert political pressure generally, but that this should be especially directed towards changing the French opposition.
/If the
CONFIDENTIAL