Paragraph 3 onwards revise to read:
3
In some instances, however, matters do not rest solely
in the hands of HMG. An example is our alignment on
1 January with the EEC Generalised System of Preferences
(GSP), which will involve discrimination against Hong Kong
over their textile and footwear exports. There was no
possibility of persuading our partners before 1 January to
agree to changes in the scheme to benefit Hong Kong; but at
a recent meeting of the Council of Ministers we put them
firmly on notice that we intend to press most resolutely
next year for improvements to benefit Hong Kong. We shall
do this even though it costs us something in Community
terms.
4
In the same spirit we are anxious to promote a
Community textile-trade policy whose effect over the next
few years should be to open up the markets of our more
restrictive European partners to increased textile imports
from countries such as Hong Kong. But we must be given
discretion to pick the most auspicious occasions and
tactics for pursuing this. We have also used some of our
slender credit with the Arabs, at Ministerial level, to
persuade them to make special arrangements to supply Hong
Kong with oil. The Prime Minister personally spoke to
Sheik Yamani about this. Perhaps most important of all,
at
some considerable cost to our relations with the Chinese,
we have given them no encouragement to pursue the proposal
of establishing a Chinese Representative in Hong Kong.
5
1
There is a further range of issues, where it may not
be altogether common knowledge, where HMG has gone to
Wico