Also at AKK020/2
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 121/10
RECEIVED IN REGRY NO. 51 0 2 JUN1981
DESK OFFICER
REGISTRY
INDEX
PA
Action Taken
No
Sir Edward Youde. KCMG
майг
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
LONDON SW1A 2AH
23
BRITISH TRADE COMMISSION
HONG KONG.
15 April 1981
G/24/4.
684
4
dem Teddy,
SECRETARY OF STATE'S VISIT TO HONG KONG
During your visit to the office last week, you reminded me that the Secretary of State had offered to take up with the Department of Trade some of the trade points raised at the meeting at Government House on March 30. I enclose a copy of my notes from which I introduced the discussion.
2. On reflection, I am not sure that there is very much that the Secretary of State can reasonably ask of the Department of Trade. Of the three priority targets which I mentioned, the construction industry is likely to be fully explored by Mr John Stanley's planned visit at the end of May and the Department of Trade have been doing their best to encourage some follow-up in Hong Kong to Mr Cecil Parkinson's textile mission of September 1980. I think therefore that what is required in these two areas is an informal word of encouragement to the official efforts being made in Britain to focus attention on Hong Kong, especially in relation to textile fabrics where our manufacturers have not really followed up the opening created by Mr Parkinson.
3. The reference in my speaking note to electronics as a priority sector stems from the need to encourage British manufacturers to regard Hong Kong as an offshore industrial base from which to expand sales in the rapidly developing markets of the region. The UK is a poor third in the field of industrial investment. Trade figures indicate that Japan and the United States, who are respectively Hong Kong's first and third suppliers, derive considerable benefit from the supply of semi-manufactures to local production partners in order to take advantage of the labour rates, dexterity, skill and flexibility of Hong Kong industry. Because Hong Kong has developed a substantial electronics sector and British manufacturers of radio and TV equipment are concerned about a Hong Kong assault on the UK's domestic market, I suggest that this is a sector where British industry might regard Hong Kong as an opportunity rather than a threat and investigate the possibilities of joint manufacturing ventures. Hopefully we can, at the same time, head off attempts to create restrictive agreements against Hong Kong exports about which I wrote to Dick Clift on 9 April.
You may consider it useful for the Secretary of State to have a brief speaking note on the above points. I enclose a draft.
4.
Your ever,
M March
lol.
cc: Mr J A Miller
PS/Government House
CONFIDENTIAL
Senior Trade Commissioner
P.S. Sive dictating
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