Mr Keeble
COTTON TEXTILES: HONG KONG
I have asked Mr Grant's Private Secretary to let you (and the other people attending Mr Royle's meeting at 4.45" today with the Hong Yong team) have urgently the record of
the meeting this morning with Mr Grant.
2. It might be useful, however, for you to have the
following summary of the meeting.
3.
After Mr Grant had given a general explanation of the
British Government's reasons for their decision to have
tariffs and quotas in 1972, Mr Haddon-Cave summarised the
Hong Kong position as being made up of five factors: -
(a) the often-repeated statements that Britain would
use only tariffs in 1972. Traders had placed
orders accordingly; and many of these had been
for the account of non-quota holders;
(b)
the increasing practice of countries taking
actions in the trade policy area to cope with
what were essentially monetary issues;
(c) the actions of the Americans (and particularly
the ultimatum way they had been taken) on
non-cotton textiles would be seen as being
(a)
paralleled by the present actions of the British
Government;
while Hong Kong recognized that textiles were
treated sui generis, the British Government's
actions were another step in the spread of
protectionism;
CONFT DENTIAL
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