Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
CONFIDENTIAL
DRAFT
PAPER FOR THE
MINISTERIAL
To:-
COMMITTEE ON
EUROPE
Type 1 +
FROM
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
w/1z0
among the develop's Countries.
HONG KONG AND THE COMMUNITY'S GENERALISED SCHEME
OF PREFERENCES
1.
In February 1971 we agreed with the Six during
the enlargement negotiations that Hong Kong should
be admitted to the Community's GSF, subject to
exclusion of benefits for their textiles and footwear. Hong Kong's principal competitions do receive benefits in these categories.
This means that from 1 January 1974, when we align
with the Community's GSP, we would, if we take no steps
to remedy the situation, ourselves have to discriminate
out ours Colony. against Hong Kong on footwear and textiles in favour
of their principal competitora among
among the developing
countries, whe de rreeive benefits on these items.
2. When this agreement was made, Mr Rippon conceded in Brussels
that the case of Hong Kong was settled definitively in the framework of the enlargement negotiations.
But he went on to say that Hong Kong was and would remain after enlargement a dependent territory of the
United Kingdom, and concluded: "It follows from this
that it must be our continuing concern to avoid discriminating against Hong Kong in favour of its principal competitors among the developing countries".
3. Mr Rippon also sent messages to the Governor of Hong Kong recording our intention to pursue the aim.
of eliminating discrimination against Hong Kong "in
(3001) Dd.145244 400m 8/73 L.Ltd. Gp.839
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
/our
Page 15Page 16
CONFIDENTIAL