АНКК 6/28)
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TRADE POLICY DEPARTMENT
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.1
9 December, 1969
Hong Kong Preferences on Indian Tobacco
Further to my letter of 7 October to Toms I now attach
a copy of a letter from the Indian High Commission on the above subject.
2.
Bharadwaj came to see me before writing his letter and explained that he had received confirmation from the Government of India that preferential treatment is in fact accorded to certain imports from Hong Kong under the terms of the UK/India Trade Agreement 1939. I said that we would be pleased to receive details and undertook to pass them on to the Hong Kong Government. I added that I doubted whether this information would affect the issue since our case rested primarily on the reasons given in our Aide Memoire of 2 October.. Bharadwaj said that he appreciated our position but hoped that the fact that India does accord preferences to Hong Kong would persuade the latter to reconsider their request in a more sympathetic light.
3. You will see from the statistics given in Bharadwaj's letter that, on the basis of the items listed only some £5,500 worth of trade is affected and I assume that the preferential rate applied is 71% ad valorem.
4. As stated in para. 2 above, I do not feel that this will affect the outcome of this case but I consider that we should now inform the Hong Kong Government of the position and would be grateful for your early comments before we do so.
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J.N. MERÉLVIE
(J.N. McKelvie)
19/12
c.c. Hong Kong Dept. (FCO
South Asia 11
(FCO.)
Miss M.V. Muskett,
C.R.E. Department,
Board of Trade,
1, Victoria Street,
S.W.1.
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