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The issues

9. We have to decide first of all whether to enter into discussion of the packago within the Community - if GSP is to become a renegotiation issue (evidently the only hope of radical benefits) then the answer is presumably no,

10. Assuming however, that we shall be continuing discussion, we have to look at.

1, the extent of the adverse impact on the supercompetitive,

especially Hong Kong

ii.

having assessed this, consider how far the balance of advantago lies in still prossing the super C's case, given that we also have the objective of securing gonuinely better treatment for the poorest countries.

The effect of the Super C'é

(i) cng Kong

11. Hong Kong, with Yugoslavia, would undoubtedly be the country the most severely affected. Hong Kong hit the butoir 22 times and Yugoslavia 24 times in 1973 out of a total of 67 hits. Hong Kong's preferential trade with the Ning ia worth about 150m, of which about $30m would be lost if the buboir came down to 10%.

12. It is difficult to say how much Ilong Kong would be harmed by freezing a loss of trade of this order. The figuros quoted above sro substantial, but es other member states never lose the opportunity to point cut, Hong Kong sends in large quantities of goods fn - about the same amount as the preferential trade,

13. One must also reckon with the possible advantagest

(a) textiles and footwear

Tran has put it about that Hong Kong could be included for textiles and footwear if they were willing to accept the reduced butoir on industrial goods. Last week he repented his confidence about French auceptance of footwear, but was noticeably reticent about textiles. We have not been able to assess the value of inclusion of textiles and Pnotvoar,

(b) abolition of quotas

Since Hong Kong's imports are constrained by the butoir in most cases, she is not likely to be able to take advantage of the increased opportunities an overall coiling would provide. There are however one or two products in which her trade is small enough to benefit.

(11) Other supercompetitive countries

14. From figures recently produced by the Commission, Yugoslavia would appear to be the biggest loser by far, standing to drop about 750m worth of preferential

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