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Community's GSP, been discriminating against Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is concerned about this, both for its own sake,
because of the constitutional implications, and for the precedent
it sets for other importing countries (especially the United
States and Japan) in their Generalised Preference Schemes. When
we accepted this arrangement in 1971 the Community were told that
it would be our continuing concern to avoid discriminating
against Hong Kong in favour of her principal competitors among
the developing countries. On 6 November the then Chancellor of
the Duchy of Lancaster said publicly that we would be pressing
"most resolutely" in the context of the 1974 GSP review for the
inclusion of Hong Kong's textiles and footwear in the Community
scheme from 1975 onwards.
FRESENT SITUATION
4.
Review
When this year's GSF begins in earnest we shall press
for Hong Kong's textiles and footwear exports to be included in
the Scheme from 1975 onwards. It is likely that the Secretary
of State will say something about this in his next statement on
renegotiation to the Council of Ministers on 4 June. We believe,
however, that it is unrealistic to expect to secure all we want
in one go
The issue is further complicated by the fact that
Hong Kong benefits quite considerably from EEC GSP benefits on
other items in the industrial sector. The new inclination
within the EEC Commission to improve the GSP in favour of the
least developed among the lesser developed nations could
restrict or, at best, freeze benefits for Hong Kong in this
The Hong Kong Government clearly do not wish to lose
sector.
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