8
Both the Canadian and Australian restrictions are
by means of quotas allocated to importers. To those who
have in the past criticised our legal quota trading in
Hong Kong I would just say that trade sources report quotas
changing hands in both countries at premia substantially
higher than were previously paid here.
As far as France is concerned, I made a statement
in this Chamber four weeks ago, in answer to a question
from Dr. Chung, in which I described as "confused" the
situation following on an official announcement in Paris
on 23rd June that global import restrictions had been
imposed on four textile products.
I regret to say that one
month afterwards we are still in some uncertainty as to
the status of the French action and its effects on
Hong Kong's exports to France in the products concerned.
We have, as I promised in this Council, made the strongest
representations both to the French Government and to the
European Economic Community on the French action, which was
in breach of the obligations accepted by the EEC on behalf
of France in the EEC/HK bilateral textiles agreement.
The present situation is that after lengthy
discussions the EEC Commission announced on 15 July EEC wide
measures against imports of the four products from certain
sources, but not including Hong Kong. The French Government
did not, however, immediately replace its unilateral
measures with these Community measures. I understand that
the EEC Council of Ministers held a meeting yesterday
to try to reach final agreement on the Community measures.
/If