RESTRICTED
RECEIVED IN
REGISTRY No. 51
од
- 6 APR 1971
BY BAG
SAVING TELEGRAM
FROM:.UNITED KINGDOM DELEGATION TO OECD
TO: FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
TELNO: 15 SAVING
RESTRICTED [NEUTRAL]
29 MARCH 1471
Addressed to FCO telegram No. 15 Saving of 29 March
repeated saving for information to UK MIS Geneva, UK DEL EC,
· Washington, Tokyo
Following from UK delegation to the Trade Committee of
OECD.
The Trade Committee met on 25/26 March. Herbst (FRG) was re-elected to the chair. Lan (DTI) represented the UK. This Saving Telegram reports discussion on tariff preferences for ldes. IFST reports discussion on the other items.
Preferences
(a) Progress towards Implementation of Preferences
2, Kronk (US) said draft legislation could be ready soon, perhaps by end-March, He hoped Congress would act this year but could not be at all certain even though he had been having inconclusive discussions with key members of Congress. He had also had discussions in Tamacia and Africa about reverse preferences and thought the US position was now better under-. stood. Suzuki Lapan) said draft legislation had passed the lower house and should be finally approved by end-March." Their internal preparations were based upon a likely implementation date of 1 July but there was no final decision yet on the date. On beneficiaries, their intention was still to exclude dependent territories and those countries invoking Article XXXV of GATT against Japan. Hijzen (EEC Commission), said the Community's internal work had been accelerated and the Council of Ministers would discuss the subject on 30 March: there was good hope for implementation this year. He could not add anything now about reverse preferences and on beneficiaries he thought the Community would include the Group of 77 plus dependent tarritories, with other borderline cases to be studied, Lam said our bill was likely to be presented to Parliament after Easter. Much work would remain to be done though we certainly hoped it would all be completed by end-December. We also had to consider the others' implementation because of the Commonwealth problem of "compensation" through opening markets elsewhere as others benefitted from our preferences. Our liberal position on beneficiaries remained unchanged and much still depended on what other major countries did.
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