CR/BIC.213/5/1111
(Dear Mr. Holtze-liansen)
101
26 August
It
Thank you for your letter of 22 August 1969. puts me, however, in some difficulty. When I was in Oslo in June I emphasised that, if the Norvegian Government wished to hold consultations, I should be grateful to receive its formal request, with an indication of the scope of the arrangements envisaged and the statistical information to support the case for mich arrange- ments. I also indicated that, since the present arrangements expire on 30 September, we should wish to hold any necessary consultations before that date in order to avoid uncertainty and disruption in the trade.
I wrote to Mr. Jarving on these lines on 21 July.
I heard nothing mors until ve
I enclose a copy of my letter. discussed this matter recently.
I linked my proposals on possible dates for consulta- tions to the date of the meeting of the Cotton Textiles Committee when it was expected that the Committee would meet in September. Now that the Committee is not meeting until October, it seems to me inappropriate to link the date of our discussions to the date for the Committee': meeting.
I am bound to say that the Hong Kong Government would be very reluctant indeed to agree to holding any consultations about a possible regulation of trade with effect from 1 October after that date. We would have preferred to hold the consultations in the first half of September, but since we have not yet received the statistical information from the Norvegian Government, that is clearly impracticable. I should therefore be grateful if you would convey to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs my proposal that we meet in Oslo in the second half of September
I shall be unable to give you the Hong Kong Government formal reply to the request for consultations until I receive the further details mentioned in your final paragraph. I should, however, mention that while the Hong Kong Government will be prepared to consider a Norwegian Government request for export restraint on additional cotton items it will also wish to consider, in the light of paragraphs 12 and 14 of the Memorandum of Understanding, whether there should be any modification of the present arrangents.
For this
Ar. 0. Holtke-Hansen,
Consul-General,
Royal Norwegian Consulate General,
Rooms 1137
1140,
Alexandra House,
Yong Kor
/purpose