super-power in textiles which should be held down to present levels of trade at all costs. We shall be lucky to get any increase for Hong Kong at all. If the draft proposals were accepted for Hong Kong as for other countries, nowever, the increase for Hong Kong would in fact be considerable (see paragraph 3 above). The dis- advantage will be that the increases would apply equally to Hong Kong's principal rivals. CT Division undertook to produce a table, similar to those in the araft paper, applicable to Hong Kong exports. CRE representatives accepted that nothing additional could be done for Hong Kong.
6. I made the point at the meeting that in accordance with the EU (0) meeting of 4 September the attempt to persuade the Community to give way on these proposals in return for our acceptance of the GSP should not be con- tinued beyond, say, the first week of November. Miss Lowne replied that nothing to this effect had appeared in the minutes of the EU(U) meeting. If they were forced to give way, they would be quite within their rights to align with the EEC's GSP at nil per cent. In fact, Mr Lam, in an internal DTI minute, had suggested that our opening gambit in negotiations on this should be for an alignment at 10% with increases year by year until we reached the proper level.
7. As a matter of interest, Miss Lowne said that the percentages given in the tables attached to the draft paper and which were related to the relative economic size of member states, were those now recognised in the Community as the shares to be taken up for textiles after alignment.
11 September 1973
00:
Mr Goodfellow HKIOD
холова
K W Hazle
Trade Relations & Exports Department