(130/3)
See 1121.
Mr Statham (EID)
Mr Laird (HKD)
Mr Lush (N Amer D)
CONFIDENTIAL
Reference......
US GENERALISED PREFERENCE S
1.
133
(sepfile content
par
P.P. En
Mr Statham and Mr Lush will have seen Mr Meynell's letter to me of 1 May on this subject, and a copy is attached for Mr Laird.
2.
On reverse preferences the supposed modification of the US position seems to me to be evaporating fast. What Mr Samuels said to Mr Rippon and Mr Bottomley bore the clear interpretation that no advance commitment to phase out reverse preferences would be required from beneficiaries of the US scheme But the record of Mr Samuels' talk with Mr Noble* quoted him in paragraph 5 as still talking of US insistence on a Declaration of Intent; and now in paragraph 7 of Mr Meynell's letter Mr Cronk is reported as saying that satisfactory assurances (though they could be informal) would be necessary before each country became eligible to benefit. All that we seem to have by way of a change is "some flexibility regarding the time and nature of the se assurances".
3. Secondly, on Hong Kong Mr Meynell reports in his paragraph 6 that the State Department are in favour of treating Hong Kong on the lines followed by the EEC but that there are differences of opinion, and the Embassy's assessment is not very optimistic.
5. All this is somewhat worrying especially when we are told that a submission is about to go to President Nixon on these two important issues. It is even gloomier when we read of the Congressional difficulties ahead not only on reverse preferences but on the possibility of legislation at all. There is presumably little or nothing we can do about the latter; but I wonder whether we shall need to consider a message to President Nixon pressing our case on both matters, dependent of course on the nature of the submission to him. The Embassy could be asked to report as soon as they know what shape it has taken. May I have your views please?
1
ливоляет
R G Britten
Trade Policy Department
5 May 1971
Copy to:-
O H Kemmis Esq, DTI.
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CONFIDENTIAL