CONFIDENTIAL
M. Caller
(HKD)
(THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT)
Pleaser
PCO (69)18
2nd September, 1969
CABINET
42
COPY NO.
OFFICIAL COMMITTEE ON COMMERCIAL POLICY
UNCTAD: TARIFF PREFERENCES FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Memorandum by the Board of Trade
102
INTRODUCTION
As explained in P.C.0.(69)3 of February 17, it was agreed at the beginning of this year that all the prospective preference-giving countries would on March 1 table illustrative lists of two kinds. In the field of industrial products (Chapters 25 to 99 of the Brussels Nomenclature) the lists would be negative, i.e. products on which countries were not prepared to give preferences. For processed agricultural products the lists would be positive. The only exceptions in the industrial products field tabled by the United Kingdom were cotton textiles, haematite pig iron and egg albumens. We made it clear that the maintenance of our lists would depend upon what others were prepared to do and we made two specific reservations:-
(i) that on non-cotton textiles we reserved the right to
(ii)
withdraw our offer in total if it was not matched by others;
that we must deal with the iron and steel sector in isolation and could only maintain our offer of duty-free entry without restriction if others followed suit.
There has since been a long delay because the United States and Japan failed to meet the March 1 deadline and in the event tabled their lists in August.
2. In the meanwhile, developing countries in the UNCTAD have kept up the pressure for action, and at the last meeting of the UNCTAD Preferences Committee the developed countries committed themselves to providing substantive documentation for discussion with the developing countries by the end of October. The O.E.C.D. group, therefore, should settle among themselves what is to be put to the developing countries very soon and there is to be a meeting for this purpose beginning on September 24. At this meeting, we should try to judge how much further the other donors are likely to open their markets to the developing countries and what the pattern of new trade opportunities is likely to be. We should then press for the offers to be improved and consider how far our own very generous offer should be reduced. It is unlikely that any practical agreed scheme will emerge from the meeting, and there should be no need to commit oursleves firmly on points of detail. Our negotiators will, however, need some indication of the direction we intend our modifications to take.
RECEIVED IN
|REGISTRY No.51 12 SEP 1969
1JXX 6/12
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