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and also on Hong Kong points of detail in matters where there are U.K. interests at stake. But in the latter case the Cotton Textiles Committee is the obvious example it is normal for the U.K. representative to lead the delegation and speak on points of policy. I think that this procedure is correct and ought to be explicitly laid down and accepted. As a corollary, I also think that the suggestion in paragraph 7 of your minute of 27 November, if rollowed up, could set a precedent which we might regret. It would be better difficult though it may be, to work out an agreed liné with Hong Kong in advance and ror no divergence of policy to be revealed in the Cotton Textiles Committee itself. We should put ourselves in a false position if Derek Jones were to say something contrary to our policy in the Committee, or in any other international. organisation, since we should have no satisfactory reply if asked whether it represented the views of the U.K.
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3. We should bear in mind also that, although the problem now arises in relation to the Cotton Textiles Committee, it is not necessarily confined to the GATT. Commercial policy differences between us and Hong Kong may also be of importance on matters discussed in UNČTAD. The question of preferences is very much a case in point. It cannot be excluded that at some point the U.K. and Hong Kong will have different views and even that the U.K. may feel bound, on general grounds, to act in a way which the Hong Kong authorities regard as not sufficiently safeguarding their interests. Hong Kong not being a member of UNCTAD could not put forward its own separate views there.
4. I am sure you will tell me if I have got your suggestion wrong. Perhaps the idea was only that Derek Jones should be able to tell other delegations here that Hong Kong has a rather different view on the extension of the Cotton Textiles Agreement. I should be sorry to see this happening at all generally; ror it does inevitably undermine our position if the GATT Secretariat or, say, the Americans are encouraged by differences between us and Hong Kong to feel they can play one off against the other. But I am in any case glad to have an opportunity of raising with you informally the general question of Hong Kong representation in GATT and the other international organisations here. Derek Jones has received a copy of a letter dated 25 November from Carter in the FCO to Dunnett which encloses a document of proposed guidance on Hong Kong's external commercial relations. From our
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