CONFIDENTIAL
Mr. Stefant Mr. Carter
HK Dept
United Kingdom Delegation to
the European Communities,
28 rue Joseph II,
BRUSSELS, 40
е
13 November, 1969.
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multilateral
UNCTAD PREFERENCES
I had a brief word with Tran on 12 November about recent developments at the 0.E.C.D. meeting on the preference question.
2. Tran said that the Community would certainly not change its approach in the light of the new American proposal. They were no more convinced than before that unlimited duty free entry with a safeguard clause was a better system than their own proposal for tariff quotas on sensitive products. In the Commission's view, a system of unlimited entry with a safe- guard clause would be an open invitation to Community industries to lobby for the application of the safeguard clause; and the final result could be remarkably restrictive. However, the threat of the safeguard clause would be a continuous irritant in the Community's relations with developing countries and would introduce an element of uncertainty which would damage the interest of developi. experters.
3. Nor, he added, was the Commission at all convinced by the American argument that it was only by all developed countries adopting a single system that equal burden sharing could be accurately calculated. The Commission doubted very much whether with one system or with several systems it was really possible to estimate burden sharing with any exactitude. In the end, in this as in other trade arrangements, a rough balance would have to be struck and that could be done perfectly well on the basis of different countries operating different systems. The proposed American safeguard mechanism in any case left open the possibility of constant changes in the burden borne by different developed countries.
4. On Hong Kong, Tran said that he had now been given the green light by Di Martino to draw up new proposals for discussing within the Commission and, subsequently he hoped, with the member states. These proposals would be based on the paper
R. Goldsmith, Esq.,
Board of Trade,
London, S.W.1.
RECEIVED IN
REGISTRY No.51
17 NOV 1969
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