CONFIDENTIAL
ARGUMENT
10. It is doubtful whether other Member States would acquiesce in our removing the item from the agenda on 5 April. Most want the matter decided so that the Community can speak in Geneva on 18 April.
11. As long as the majority of Member States support "globalisation", we can continue to stand firm. We are (as the Secretary of State has suggested) continuing to press the Commission to revise their proposals. But if the French really are about to crumble, there is a serious risk that we will soon be isolated in our demands
for a globalisation clause. Some of the other Member States who support globalisation now are likely to follow a French lead. In that situation the Council could not continue to press the Commission to redraft their proposals substantively when in fact Member States were moving towards support of the Commission proposals. The Council on 5 April would then probably be presented with the Commission's proposals on a "take-it-or-leave-it" basis. If the UK were then isolated, a firm stance would not only embarrass us in the Community. It could also cause us serious problems in the North/South dialogue, since the Community would not be able to take a position in Geneva on 18 April and it would soon become known that this was because of UK intransigence. We should avoid being manoeuvered into such a situation.
12. The best way to avoid these dangers is to arrange for there to be an alternative basis for discussion in the Community, ie one other than the Commission's paper. Here our tenure of the Presidency could give us an advantage. FCO officials have prepared a draft Presidency position which is based on the Commission's paper but which would effectively oblige the Community to impose the restrictions which the UK considers essential to deal with the problem of cumulative market disruption. The suggested position is based on the idea that the Community would, on a list of particularly sensitive products, undertake its own assessment of the total volume of imports which Member States could absorb.
/On the
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CONFIDENTIAL