Rei cace
3. The negotiations were extremely tough with a lot of somewhat nerve-racking cliffhanging. The Swedes had to refer back for new instructions no less than four times. It is a great tribute to Mr. Jordan's ability as a nego- tiator that agreement was finally reached.
4. It may be of interest to record that the Swedes agreed fairly quickly to drop their request for restraint on blouses after their industrial advisers, who were present throughout the negotiations, produced figures to show that Swedish pro- duction of blouses of artificial fibres had recently been increasing and that overall production of blouses and all fibres (i.e. cotton, continuous and discontinuous synthetic and continuous and discontinuous artificial fibres) had been increasing. The Swedes therefore agreed that producers of blouses were not being damaged by rising imports of blouses. of synthetic fibres only.
The
5. The Swedes only agreed with great reluctance and after much argument and two references back to the Ministry of Commerce to postpone their request for restraint on under- garments. They finally acknowledged that the figures they had produced (which showed that i mports of women's pants had been increasing rapidly while Swedish production had been declining) did not prove damage to producers who could easily switch to other garments made of the same fine yarns. clinching argument was perhaps the one that in a market which on Swedish evidence consumed some 70 million pairs of panti- hose per annum, a drop in production of a mere million pairs of pants, was not necessarily significant. I have little doubt however that the Swedes will come back with new figures to show that their producers of underwear and like garments` made from similar light yarns are being damaged by imports and that they will renew their request for a restraint on exports of pants from Hong Kong as soon as they have assembled the appropriate figures.
6.
It may just be worth recording that the Swedes not only gave the two-man Hong Kong Delegation, myself, and the Commercial Secretary at the British Embassy lunch in a restaur- ant but also arranged dinner and a visit to the Opera and a visit and lunch at a women's outerwear factory. If the next round of consultations take place in London it may be difficult for us to match their generous hospitality.
7. All in all I think the outcome of the negotiations highly satisfactory. No embarrassing new precedent has been estab- lished which our own industry, the Americans or other countries, could use against us: the Hong Kong Government and industry should be delighted with the limited concessions the Hong Kong Government has been obliged to conceed to the Swedes.
Mr. Carey, Sec.
c.c. Mr. Peck, Sec.
Mr. Hughes, Sec. Mr. Kemmis, CRE1 Mr. Dunnett, CRE1
Mr. Stewart, I.1.
Mr. Goldsmith, CRE Mr. Whitehead, F & CO
W buff
(C. N. Júpp)
I.1. Division 20th June, 1969
Mr. Carter, F & CO Mr. Stewart, F & CO Mr. Heath, I.1.
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Mr. Pryke, I.1 Miss Welch, I.1.