HKB 121/10 RECE!
2 MAY
BISTRY
(2)
DESK OFFICEK INDEX
PA
REGISTRY
Action Taken
Mr E Whitehorn
Head, International Section Office of Fair Trading
Field House
Breams Buildings
London
EC4A 1PR
Confined to
May
Greer
that the 1 liter is frie
Я
Department of Trade and Industry
Kingsgate House 66-74 Victoria Street London SWIE 6SW
Enquiries
071-215 5000
Telex 8813148 DIHQ G
Fax 071-931 0397
Direct line 071 215 5401
Our ref NL 4/07
Your ret
Date 6 May 1993
Dear Mr Whitehorn
ANTITRUST INVESTIGATION: PROPOSED ACQUISITION OF MAJORITY SHARE IN G.M. PFAFF AG (GERMANY) BY SEMI-TECH (GLOBAL) CO. LTD. (HONG KONG)
Thank you for your letter of 29 April to Stephen Childerstone on the above. I am aware that you have also spoken to Stephen on the telephone about this case. I understand that until we are clearer about the interests of the Hong Kong company in the sewing machine business in the EC, it is not possible to say whether or not we or the Commission might have an interest in investigating the proposed acquisition too.
2
I enclose two draft letters, one to Bruce Rogers at the US Embassy and one to Gordon Siu, Secretary for Economic Services, in the Hong Kong Government. I would be grateful for comments from you and copy recipients on the draft letters.
3 I do not think that we are yet at the stage where we can take a definitive view on the FTC investigation: it is possible, for example, that the US investigation might be an "effects-based" one. If that were the case, it would, as I have tried to imply in the letter to Gordon Siu, involve wider policy interests for HMG. That said, I can
that any representations to the US authorities would have to be a joint effort between us and HKG since there do not seem to be any UK companies involved. If, on the other hand, the US do have what we consider to be a "legitimate" interest in
dti
the department for Enterprise
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