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European Integration Department (ExternaCEIVED IN
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1
Telephone 01-
REGISTRY No. 1
28 JUN1974
HKK6/598/1
Your reference
PA 6/398/1
A
26501
Goodfellow
屮
PW Unwin Esq
LART
British Embassy
(72
ROF.
Our reference
BONN
NEM
REF
(00132
Date
25 June 1974
from
Tel 6x2 HK. (69)
Decor Peter,
HONG KONG AND THE GENERALISED SCHEME OF PREFERENCES (GSP)
1. You will have seen from UKREP Brussels telegram no 2797, (72 repeated Saving to EEC Posts, that on 14 June Dodge of the Hong Kong Government Office in Brussels, accompanied by a member of UKREP Brussels, handed over a memorandum on Hong Kong and the GSP to the EEC Commission. I attach, for you and for recipients in other EEC capitals, copies of the text of the memorandum.
2. As you will see, its main purpose is to make the case for inclusion in the Community's GSP from 1975 onwards of Hong Kong's footwear and textile exports. These were excluded from the Community scheme introduced in 1971. And the position has been exacerbated by our alignment to the Community's GSP at the beginning of this year since this has obliged us to discriminate against Hong Kong in favour of some of her principle competitors, eg Korea and Yugoslavia, whose textile and footwear exports are covered by the Community's GSP. memorandum also makes the point that it would not be acceptable for Hong Kong to suffer further as a result of the modifications in the structure of the GSP which the Commission are proposing for 1975. You will have noticed that the Foreign Secretary reaffirmed in his renegotiation statement to the Council on 4 June in Luxembourg that we wish to see the discrimination against Hong Kong removed.
The
3. It was originally intended that the presentation of the memorandum to the Commission would be followed up somewhat later by its presentation by Hong Kong officials in EEC capitals. It was envisaged that the officials might, where practicable,
But you will see be accompanied by Embassy representatives. from paragraph 6 of UKREP Brussels telno 2797 that it is now likely that the Council Secretariat will itself circulate the memorandum to member states.
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14. We now expect