Miss Stoddart,
Trade Policy Department
Reference HKK 5/12 will
(46)
We spoke on the telephone about your draft circular saving despatch about the UNCTAD scheme for tariff preferences in developing countries.
As I told you, I am concerned lest the reference to "all developing countries" in paragraph 3 of the draft and again in paragraph 5 (unavoidable as these references may prove to be) should provoke in Hong Kong questions which we shall be hard put to it to answer. At present of course we adhere to the principle of eelf election in this matter and would have others do the same. Hong Kong
is no doubt well satisfied with this but knowing as she does that her entitlement to developing status is questioned elsewhere in this context of preferences she may well be moved to ask if we will be prepared to stick to our guns in this matter if others are not.
I understood you to say that you might have something more to say about this when the Board of Trade had cleared their lines.
Mar
(H. H. Stewart) Hong Kong Department 26 February 1969
Hong Kong Department
Br
(Mr. Sterbart
Stepart
you may
know
we decided not to
the draft cricular saving despatch
send off the
but, instead, to send dependent Arritories
the
with
lete submission prepared for OECD
complete
with it's wrt of our
"
assumptions." ( You will
have had a copy of
copy of this)
2.
We also sent out hel. no. 155 to Hong Kong
which was,
I belive, cleared with
of Dept. (I was myself off sick as
your
Head
the end of
last week. ).
I hope that
the wording
lis