HK and Britain-continued
metallic mineral manufactures at $99 million, metal manufactures such as iron and steel structures at $50 mil- lion and miscellaneous manufactures such as lighting and sanitary equip- ment at $66 million. In comparison
with 1971 figures, all imports except textiles registered a decline. Overall imports decreased by 10 per cent in comparison with 1971. The last five years have in fact seen little growth.
Outside one or two uniquely 'British' luxury lines-certain cloths and Scotch whisky for example- almost everything the UK sells to Hong Kong could come from another source. The overall balance of trade figure quoted earlier sums up-per- haps rather harshly-on which side of the balance sheet the main benefits lie. The UK is essential to HK ex-
porters. But HK is of only marginal value to British exporters.
With the entry of the UK into the EEC, it is clear that trade between Hong Kong and Britain is into a new phase. For a start, we are in the pro- cess of losing Commonwealth Pre- ference. To some extent this has been compensated for so far by our inclusion in both the UK and EEC Generalised Preference Scheme. main fear of exporters to-day is that the harmonisation of the UK scheme, which has been generally favourable to HK, with the EEC scheme, which offers benefits to HK's competitors, will not exactly help HK's sales.
The
The Chamber has discussed the im- plications of this elsewhere and at this stage crystal ball gazing will not throw Any new light on the subject. None-
theless, the UK is a big market for HK and one does not lose a big market overnight. There are grounds for hoping that the entry of the UK into Europe will in fact bring greater benefits in the way of British/HK trade, for experience in Germany, another EEC 'friend' is not dis- couraging. couraging. Certainly, in the long term this would be reasonable, al- though there might well be a period of adjustment-as threre was when textile quotas were introduced 14 years ago.
Preferences still apply
Before leaving the subject of trade, it must be pointed out that Common- wealth Preference opened a road for Hong Kong not only to the British market but also to the markets of the Commonwealth generally, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, per- haps some of the African countries- these not only had and still have great market potential but in a number of ways are suppliers of Hong Kong's daily necessities, and at prices lower than those from non-Commonwealth countries. Today many of these Commonwealth countries number among the Colony's leading trading partners. Last year, Canada was HK's fourth largest market, Australia the sixth, Singapore the seventh, Malaysia the twelfth, New Zealand the thirteenth, and Nigeria the sixteenth largest. Together the Commonwealth (excluding the UK) accounted for $1929.60 million or 12.7 per cent of total domestic exports in 1972.
The Commonwealth remains an association covering approximately
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