liberalisation had been raised during the visit to this country of President Roh Tae-Woo. Since his return the intellectual property dispute had remained unsettled, the improvements for Scotch Whisky promised for January are inadequate, tariff cuts have been postponed and liberalisation of financial services barely moved. On top of this the organised anti import campaign to which I have already referred. On our side we had supported them against our best judgement over the Taejon Expo. They therefore need to take some pretty drastic action in the very near future if they are to expect UK to take part in the Expo and British business to co-operate.
Having said that, I do recognise that some British business is doing quite well against the odds and we have our work cut out to catch up with the Germans. We therefore need to keep the pressure on and I suggested they should take the proposed visit by the CBI President in April 1991 as a target date for improvement. It remains a country of great potential.
Our newly arrived Ambassador, David Wright, is already mastering the Korean language, which makes him our first Ambassador able to speak it. He thoroughly understands and supports our business interests and he has on the whole an excellent commercial staff. My wife and I both enjoyed our visit made so much better by their hospitality and guidance for which many thanks.
Final Overview
As you may know these three countries will feature as Board priorities in the second Forward Plan. The Pacific Rim and South East Asia are the fastest developing and in certain cases the richest countries in the world. From a business point of view, I firmly believe our Board priorities to be right. I can understand the political and emotional interest there is in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, they are a cashless lot and I would welcome more overt attention being paid to the developing markets.
USA
Festival of Britain in Orange County, California
Sir Antony Acland, British Ambassador, has already sent a report to Sir Peter Gregson commenting in detail on the Festival of Britain in Orange County. My reason for going there was partly because I had been involved in the original presentation made by the representatives of Orange County a year ago in the UK and also because this represented a major investment of time and money by all concerned. It is remarkable that Orange County is probably the one part of the United States which has not suffered from recession and indeed a member of Tiffany's told me that this was their only store in the United States which was still exceeding the previous years' sales. Orange County which started as an overflow for Los Angeles has become a major factor in aerospace and