Fran?
Confidential
CRE 206120 6/14
BOARD OF TRADE, ↑ Victoria Street, London, 8.W.1..
12th February, 1969.
Pl. Copy to: Mr. Stewart (HKD). Mr. Brind. (ELD) Jick Al
UNCTAD Preferences
Thank you for your letters of 6th and 7th February which I have
The documents attached to the now seen on my return from Geneva. second letter are of very great interest to us and I am most grateful to you for obtaining them.
In your letter of 6th February you argue again the proposition put forward in your letter of 14th January that if we are to exert any influence on the Community's thinking on the treatment of Hong Kong, the time to do so is before they have agreed their position; and that we should now consider immediate approaches in the capitals of the 3ix as well as to the Commission itself.
I am
I have considered your line of argument very carefully. not however satisfied that it is clearly to our advantage to apply
As you say, it diplomatic pressures on the Commission or the Six.
is probably too late to do more than we have already done to influence the Commised on which has already submitted its proposals. I have already explained our view many times to those in the Commissio responsible for tariff preferences and I do not see the advantage of repeating these points, say, at the level of the appropriate member of the Commission, Martino. He will already have received the advice of the officials like Di Martino and will hardly be willing to alter the Commission's line at this stage.
The question is therefore essentially whether it would now be
I think we can rule out useful to lobby in the capitals of the Six. approaches to West Germany and the Netherlanda since they are already
I have explained our views to Mlle.Guyot pressing our point of view. of France although not in detail to the Belgians and Italians who I doubt are likely anyway to follow the French on this subject. strongly whether representations through diplomatic channels would ̧ ́have any effect in Paris.
You will have noted that both the French and the Commission refer to a "second stage" at which the E.E.C. may be able to make concessions probably on a product basis for Hong Kong if in the initial offer tabled on March ↑ Hong Kong is excluded because beneficiary countries are limited to the "Group of 77" (1f this is what the Community do it will, of course, not only be Hong Kong who will be concerned to extract concessions from them).
I suggest that in these circumstances it might well be counter- productive to embark on diplomatic representations before March 1. We (and I includa Derek Jones in this) have built up good working relations with the representatives of the Community during the
D.H.A. Hannay, Esq.,
U.K. Delegation to the European Communities,
28 rue Joseph II,
Brussels, 4.
meetings/
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