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(iii)
6.
ceilings. It would be hard to keep the fact of an UKREP
approach to the Commission from them since they are in
daily contact with the Commission over the MFA.
No other Member State has much sympathy for Hong Kong.
They all believe that any increased protection the Community
is going to get from the next textile negotiations should come
at the expense of the "super competitive" countries, Hong Kong,
South Korea and Taiwan, in order to give room to be less
tough with the poorest countries and leave room for newcomers
to the Community's textile market.
I have in fact this morning spoken to Mr Elliott in UKREP.
He strongly endorses the line of argument in paragraph 5 of this
submission. He adds that the Commission have this morning approved
a document on the lines foreshadowed by Tran at the Textiles Working
Group on 5 September (UKREP tel no 5121), but without the country
by country figures for the suppliers.
Mr Tran's visit on 9 September
7.
As stated in para 4 above, DOI and DOT, the lead Whitehall
Departments are only really interested in the global ceilings for the
sensitive textile products. Without seeing the breakdown of suggested
quotas from all the supplying countries, it would be hard for them
to take a judgement on how much the UK is prepared to take from Hong
Kong. It is the Commission's responsibility to produce this breakdown
and we cannot get a meaningful answer from the Department of Industry
who have naturally left the work to the Commission. Preparation of
detailed UK objectives in the negotiations is in hand; the FCO
is represented on the interdepartmental committee. But it has not
been possible to adopt final positions pending the Commission's
precise proposals as to the allocation of quotas between the supplying
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