(9069) Dd.032652 3m 2/67 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863
こ
C
PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION
for WRITTEN | answer on. 9 November 1973
Không ương
Hong
The draft reply should reach the Parliamentary Office through your Under-Secretary_by
17W
$11am Today 9/11
Mr Peter Hordern (Horsham): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, in view of the United Kingdom's obligation to align with the EEC's Generalised System of Preferences on 1st January 1974, what action he is taking to remedy the exclusión from the Generalised System of Preferences of Hong Kong's textile and footwear exports.
Mr. Anthoms Pryce
At a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the EEC on
6 November, my Kt hon Friend, the Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster, made a strong statement on the
position of Hong Kong. He said that during the
enlargement negotiations in 1971 the Community had
agreed to admit Hong Kong to its Generalised System
of Preferences, subject to the exclusion of her
textiles and footwear exports. Our Chief Negotiator
but at the time had agreed to this arrangement he had
made it clear to the Community that it would be the
United Kingdom's continuing concern to avoid
discrimination against Hong Kong. The arrangements
agreed by our partners in 1971 may have seemed to them
not ungenerous. But an important consideration now was
that since 1971 the situation had changed to the
detriment of Hong Kong and that the Philippines,
Thailand and Yugoslavia, all of them serious
competitors of Hong Kong, had become beneficiaries
under the Community's scheme in respect of cotton
We had examined this matter carefully and
textiles.
had concluded that in present circumstances it was no
longer acceptable for discrimination to apply against
Hong Kong.
/As this aspect