B
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death sentence for certain categories of murder.
Sir M MacLehose
accepted this. He said he must have some discussion of the whole
question with the Secretary of State. He had discussed his general
attitude on the matter with 2 or 3 senior Unofficial Members of
ExCo.
EEC/GSP
15. Mr FitzHerbert of EID joined the meeting for this subject.
Mr Royle said the problem was to reconcile the need not to appear
to discriminate against Hong Kong with our obligations to the
Community. He would soon be receiving a submission on the
possibilities of reopening the matter with the Community. The
political side of the Office (but not European Integration
Department) would like to reopen it. EID thought that to do so
would be damaging to our overall European policy. It might lead
to pressure for reopening our domestic arrangements with the
Community and our arrangements with Commonwealth countries. But
he understood that it would not involve a breach of the Act of
Accession.
16.
Mr FitzHerbert said that although this was so, we had accepted
the exclusion of Hong Kong from the GSP on textiles and footwear as
part of the terms of Accession. Perhaps we could compromise by
seeking adjustments downwards in the quotas for other exporting
countries. Even if we did reopen the question with the Community,
it was doubtful whether we would get anywhere. Sir M MacLehose
said that, when the agreement in Brussels had been explained to
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/Hong Kong