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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
thirteenth session of the full Commission at which Hong Kong was also represented.
TRADE PROMOTION
The path of Hong Kong's thriving industry with its absolute dependence on exports as a market for many products is not always smooth; success in particular overseas markets is apt to invite tariff or other restrictions on imports in the face of which the Colony with its own liberal trade policy is usually in a poor bargaining position. 1957 can hardly be classified as a year of positive achievement in combatting restrictions, but it has been possible to record some small gains and to limit further erosion of the Colony's trading position.
Early in the year the signature of the Treaty of Rome and activity in connexion with the proposed European Free Trade Area had its repercussions in Hong Kong, where the relationships of dependent territories of both the Treaty countries and the prospective members of the Free Trade Area gave rise to much anxious thought. In April Hong Kong was represented at a conference in London of Colonial representatives. There are still too many uncertainties in the structure of the Free Trade Area to discern with any clarity the Colony's future in relation to the European Common Market or the Area. Being unique among Colonial terri- tories in its development of light industry and in its extensive export trade in manufactured products, the Colony could be in a very vulnerable position.
Efforts in 1956 to devise a satisfactory procedure which would encourage an expansion of trade with South Vietnam and Cambodia were frustrated. Again in 1957 attempts to inaugurate procedures designed for certification of origin of goods purchased in or through the Colony with United States International Co-operation Administration funds foundered for no obvious reasons.
Some success was, however, achieved with Indonesian