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INDUSTRY AND TRADE
principal exports, while in Australia temporary additional duties were imposed on handkerchiefs, towels and towelling, and at the end of the year tariff investigations were pending on knitted outer- wear, cotton sheetings, pillowcases, electric lamps and bulbs. Ceylon increased its import duties on a number of items, and increased the number of items subject to individual import licences. In June, Canada announced additional surcharges on the import of a wide range of commodities, several of which affect Hong Kong's trade. The rates of surcharge, varying between 15 per cent, 10 per cent and five per cent ad valorem, are determined by an assessment of luxury value and availability from domestic industry.
On the positive side, the United States implemented bilateral agreements made in March with contracting parties to the GATT, to reduce tariffs on a wide range of consumer goods. Items of interest to Hong Kong include rattan furniture, hair pins, padlocks, lanterns, enamelware, torch bulbs, glassware, sauces, preserved ginger, knitted cotton underwear, terry-woven towels, floor-cover- ings, hats of synthetic fibres, beaded handbags, plastic flowers, jewellery and handkerchiefs. In a phased reduction of the tariffs, the first stage became effective on 1st July, when import duties on most of these items fell by one per cent to two per cent ad valorem. On 18th October, Australia removed most of her remain- ing import licensing controls, leaving only a few commodities subject to quantitative restriction.
Delegations from the Colony attended the ECAFE intra-regional trade promotion talks, the fifth session of the Committee on Trade in January and the plenary session of the commission in March.
TRADE PROMOTION
The Trade and Industry Advisory Board, the members of which are representative of the Colony's various industrial and com- mercial interests, advises the Director of Commerce and Industry on matters concerning trade. With the board's advice, Government has adopted a policy of concentrating trade promotion in areas where the Colony's trading relationships are relatively undeveloped. Thus by opening up new markets it is hoped to lessen the present dependence of Hong Kong on its export trade with the United
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