NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
CONFIDENTIAL
zi
The City's S.S.P is not static;
Since Maloppion's
ट
acut with
the Commas musisting,
GOP to textiles and 100twear from Hong Kong will create
difficulties for us in the Community, in the UK and
with the independent Commonwealth countries Commandy's
the European scoring
Has compiled
way to the community to improving its
Scheme.
Morcover
original agreement to admit Hong Kong to the Gommuni
obtained
GSP, less textiles and footwear, was only reached with
of or part news
showing
difficulty.
resistance
ง)
The Community have not since been disposed
Lp.~oposals for improvement; in
to agree to other)modifications to the GSP They
pt the in
Vattend
will argue that the question of Hong Kong's admission
Our partners to the GSP was definitively settled in 1971 Some of hoking
umet be untrant them might take the opportunity to press for changes
to reopen the questem boff on the have even afthed in aspects of the treaty which they do not like.
the report. At,
At
home, critics of our European policy are likely to
argue that if we can reopen the terms of our entry on
Hong Kong's behalf, we can also do so for ourselves.
Other Commonwealth countries, such as India, will
contrast our insistence that we have no alternative
but to raise our tariffs against them, with our efforts
Rek for Hong Kong,
Success of this stage the forely all indeed.
It is, however, possible, as a matter of Community
law, for us to reopen this question. It would not
involve any breach of the Act of Accession. We can
also point out to our Community partners that, at
least in the case of cotton textiles, the situation
has changed since 1971 to the detriment of Hong Kong.
Since our agreement, the Philippines, Thailand and
Yugoslavia, all of them serious competitors of Hong
Kong, have become beneficiaries under the scheme for
should cotton textiles. The Community recognise the
problem for us of discriminating against our own
/dependency.
(17259) Dd.897459 250m 12/72 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863
(16941) Dd.897300 250m 9/72 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863