(134392) Dd. 737115 750m 4/70 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry
No.
CURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
.In Confidence
DRAFT
To:-
темий
Type 1 +
From
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
GENERALISED PREFERENCES: HONG KONG AND THE EEC
You expressed the hope, in your letter of 24 February, that we might lobby the EEC before the end of this month about the discrimination against Hong Kong in their generalised preference scheme. This is ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ a delicate matter, as the EEC would probably
the
le colony hold that their inclusion of Hanxx, in nomat tter how restricted a manner, was a marked discrimination
in favour of Hong Kong, so far unmatched in public by any other major donor.xnxnxnym
2.
It is of course our continuing concern to avoid any discrimination against Hong Kong in favour of its competitors in the developing countries, as Mr Rippon stated in his message to the Governor on 2 February (Codel telno 1 to Hong Kong). The question is to find a context where we can speak with some authority, We have accepted the EEC offer to Hong Kong as sett- ling this issue in the enlargement negotiations. *xx Lobbying cannot therefore hope to improve the treat- ment of Hong Kong, but only to worsen that accorded to
other potential beneficiaries.
3. We have no locus standi purely as another GPS
donor to intexfenenwith influence the EEC's choice of
beneficiaries and the kind of tariff treatment afford- ed them. However, as Mr Rippon's message stated, we should, have gooi oppertunities to work for the object ive in our GPS adaptation talks with the Six, and also afterwards as a member of the Ten.
However,
see no hope of our engaging the EEC in adaptation talks on preferences until such time as they know the firm details of their own scheme, and these may only be settled at the 30 March Council of Ministers meet-
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