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DEPARTMENT OF TRADE
1 VICTORIA STREET
LONDON SWIH OET
TELEPHONE DIRECT LINE 01 215 5144
SWITCHBOARD 01 215 7877
From the
Minister for Trade's office
GET Green Esq
Private Secretary to the
Minister of State
Civil Service Department Old Admiralty Building Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AZ
Ps/Sas Ps/secuting
Mr. Gaines Mr.Dick
CRF4
Mr. Jarling ESA
Mr.Dick
ESP
Mo. Wood ove Mr. Priston CREY Mr. Allan CREA
(with papers)
June 1980
Dear Private Secretary
Your letter of 19 May to William Burroughs explained the diffi- culties faced by the Government Hospitality Fund in financing large Ministerial delegations from China to this country; and suggested that, where the visit had a commercial element, the Department of Trade might be invited to become involved in the planning of such visits and perhaps contribute to the costs. This Department fully appreciates, and indeed shares, GHF'S difficulties over Chinese delegations. We have in the past rescued another department from financial embarrassment of ex-. actly the kind faced by the Department of Energy over the visit of Vice Premier Kang: but, like GHF, we stressed at the time that our action was unique, and that we were not in a position to take on the costs of Chinese missions invited by other depart- ments even if there was an "export" element. Our resources too are limited and stretched.
It is clear that Chinese delegations create problems which HMG's existing mechanisms are not well equipped to cope with: and this Department would be happy to participate in arrangements designed to avoid these problems. This would not of course in any way involve a commitment to provide funds for a particular mission: any such decision would depend on our being convinced that there was a sufficiently strong trade case to justify the use of Department of Trade funds. Department of Trade financial support would also be conditional upon our China Unit approving the pro- gramme, and our Overseas Visitors Bureau making the necessary arrangements.
We regard it as essential that other departments should not con-- sider issuing invitations, still less taking on commitments, in the expectation that the Department of Trade will provide funds. The right decision in many cases may be to set a limit to the numbers of visitors. But we do see advantage in being involved in the initial consideration of such visits so that decisions (especially financial ones) can be taken in full consultation between all departments who may have an interest and before any invitation is
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