Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
J W D Gray Esq CMG
UKDEL OECD
PARIS
BY FAX
Dear Ambassadar,
Telephone 01-
270 2677
Your reference
Ра
Our reference
HC1ACC
Date
16 October 1990
MMB 090/1
m
8090/35
OECD/DAE INFORMAL DIALOGUE
1.
Thank you very much for your letter of 14 September recording Deputy Secretary-General Taniguchi's account of his visit to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul. It was most useful to hear both his general impressions of DAE concerns, including the question of the impact of Eastern European reform on the world economy, as well as reactions of the individual DAE countries.
This
2. Since seeing your letter, we have also received the OECD Briefing Note on the OECD/DAE Informal Dialogue (Room Document No 1 of 27 September 1990) which considers (in Part 'C') the next phase. looks to us to be largely along the right lines and shows signs of setting something of the "strategy framework" referred to in my predecessor's (Martin Bourke's) letter to Christopher Crabbie of 21 June. My one specific comment on the paper relates to paragraph 14 and the second of the two topics proposed. We wonder whether in fact this is slanted the right way given that there will not be for some foreseeable time any impact on the DAES by integration of the East European economies into the world economy. It seems to us that with. their knowhow and growing financial strength it is rather the DAES that could have a certain impact on the East European economies, particularly if the OECD countries can "match-make" by establishing contact. In that sense, a dialogue with that goal in mind could be most fruitful.
3. On the more general topics raised in your letter, I agree that we are at a delicate stage in looking for ways of deepening the informal contacts with the DAES while at the same time taking due account of