RESTRICTED
Mr Lambert (HKIOD)
Reference......
67
HONG KONG'S GATT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ENLARGED EEC
1. We spoke and I said I would confirm my one comment which I now do.
2.
I think the difficulty with the draft paper as it stands is that, of the four possibilities reviewed in para 9, the first would be unacceptable to the EEC to Hong Kong and to ourselves; the second would be unaccep- table at any rate to ourselves and Hong Kong; the third is ruled out on legal grounds; and the fourth is stated to be unlikely to be acceptable to the GATT. If Mr Haudon-Cave receives the paper with this stark presen- tation of improbabilities and impossibilities, he is likely to despair or get angry or both. I suggest therefore that you will wish at least to add a para- graph suggesting where we go from here. On the face of it, the fourth possibility is, notwithstanding the GATT difficulties foreseen by UKMis Gere va, the only kind of solution which would be a) tolerable to the EEC; b) get us off the hook; and c) give Hong Kong the separate voice which Mr Hadaon-Cave insists she must have.
Houn
K FX Burns
17 August 1972
Copies to:
Mr Laidler (EID(1))
Mr Hazle (Commodities Dept)
Mykant
Trade Policy Department
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gamber
18 August 1972
I have already amended the draft Paper which I put catr
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