17:
which could be sent to Hong Kong.
He would make the whole agreement
ad referendum in case the final decision reached in London was that
Hong Kong should concede no restraints in future.
Mr. Carey said it would be more satisfactory if the Swedes could be
persuaded to terminate an existing restraint e.g. Knitwear. He
understood that last year they had offered a time limit on restraints
and he had hoped that Mr. Jordan would be willing to consider trying
•
to get them to withdraw the restraint on knitwear in exchange for one
on Shirts.
Mr. Goldsmith suggested that Mr. Jordan might go to Stockholm and
negotiate on Anoraks, Knitwear and Shirts. He might try to persuade
the Swedes to drop the restraint on Knitwear for a new one on Shirts
but if they would not accept this he could concede on both.
Agreement
on all three items should be subject to the Swedes being prepared to
drop their application for restraints on Blouses and Underwear. If
the Swedes would not drop the last two items, he would then have to
say that he could not come to any agreement. Meanwhile, in the
week gained, Londen would be able to prepare the U.K. case on the
restraint question as already suggested.
Mr. Jordan said Hong Kong must know not only whether the U.K. had a
case for restraints but whether the U.K. intended to change its policy,
as regards not only Sweden but other countries as well.
Sir Arthur Snelling said the U.K. would be prepared to agree that
Mr. Jordan negotiated a restraint agreement on Shirts and that this
nced not be ad referendum. Similarly an agreement to continue the
On the
restraints on Anoraks and Knitwear would not be ad referendum.
remaining two items, if no agreement were obtained from the Swedes to
withdraw their request, the U.K. could not agree to Hong Kong conceding
these restraints until the strength of the Swedish case had been further
investigated.
Mr. Jupp said Ind.l did not consider that the Swedes had any case on these
/items