(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500M 2/69 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
DRAFT
letter
Type 1 +
To:-
From
Mr. Carter
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Тип
was the
stage
and which
my department became involved
Additional paragraphs suggested for
inclusion in your letter to Mr.
Blackwell.
Fmally,
ん
I hope that before you receive this letter
you will not already have been the target of
indignant complaints about the Industrial Development
(Ships) Bill. If so, it ismore than likely that
NOT HAVE. KNOWN.
you will have
fuss was about.
M
the dark as to what all the
Ar
The
This Bill imposes a balance of ayments test
You on applications for investment grants ships. might well wonder why Hong Kong is involved. fact is that shipyards in EFTA countries and the Irish Republic have been exempted in the Bill from the balance of payments tests because of the risk of conflict with the EFTA and AIFTA Conventions. Dependent Territories however have not been exempted.
In December 3. When this Bill was at the Committee stage, Mr.Royle (who is, as you know, a stout champion of Hong Kong's interests) moved an amendment to exempt
abso the shipyards in dependent territories from the balance of payments tests. Rather embarrassinglý and surprisingly, he was successful at that stage. But the other embarrassing feature of the situation is that the Joint Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Technology (Dr. Davies) opposed Royle's amendment on the grounds that it would involve us in a breach of the mfn rule in GATT. 4. Unfortunately, between that stage and the Report stage, when the Bill was restored to its original form, the weaknesses of Dr. Davies' Gatt arguments were discovered so thoroughly discovered
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