In the statement which the Foreign and Common-
wealth Secretary made in the Council on 4 June he
said:
"We need substantial improvement in the position
of Hong Kong where at present the UK has to
discriminate against one of its own territories".
1
We were greatly pleased to see that in the
proposals which they made public last week the
Commission are suggesting that as regards footwear
the Community should abandon discrimination against
Hong Kong. We very much hope that when we come to
discuss these proposals the other member states of the
Community will be able to agree.
Lates
Naturally the Commission's recent proposals do
not touch the textile sector because of the need for
the Community to define and negotiate arrangements
governing imports of textiles within, the framework of
the new Multifibres Agreement. The present position
is that the Community discriminates against Hong Kong
in comparison with other Asian suppliers, such as
Korea, which benefits from preferences for its exports
of textiles to the Community.
i
We therefore await with interest the Commission's
forthcoming proposals on the treatment of textiles under
the Generalised System of Preferences in 1975. In
P
the light of what we have said, and in recognition of
the fact that Hong Kong depends upon exports for its
survival we would expect the Commission, to propose a
substantial step towards the elimination of discrimina-
tion against Hong Kong in this field: and we would
2
/expect