INDUSTRY AND TRADE
17
In June, Australia announced that the export restraints on several clothing items under a bilateral agreement under the MFA between Hong Kong and Australia, which was to expire on June 30, would be replaced by global tariff quotas.
The MFA is due to expire at the end of 1977 and a major review of its operation was conducted in December 1976. The review also considered whether the MFA should be extended, modified or discontinued. No clear-cut consensus emerged and consideration of the future of the MFA continued into 1977, with Hong Kong participating fully in the discussions.
Work went on during 1976 on the Multilateral Trade Negotiations (MTN) which were launched in September 1973 in Tokyo with the object of further liberalising world trade by the removal or reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers. Again little progress was made in spite of pledges made by major developed countries to accelerate the pace. The negotiations are continuing.
A regional seminar on the Multilateral Trade Negotiations-jointly organised by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Commonwealth Secretariat was held in Hong Kong in February 1976. It was attended by more than 30 delegates from the ESCAP and Commonwealth countries and territories. The seminar was designed to assist member developing countries and territories in their preparations for the trade negotiations. It also provided an oppor- tunity for participants to identify common interests and discuss common problems.
Of considerable importance to Hong Kong are the various generalised preference schemes. They are operated by most of the developed countries and are designed to assist the export of goods manufactured by the developing countries. The schemes include provisions allowing duty-free or low tariff entry for products from beneficiary developing countries.
The form, coverage and other provisions of the schemes differ from country to country. Hong Kong has been included as a beneficiary by most of the developed countries operating such schemes except Finland and Norway. Some products from Hong Kong are excluded from the schemes operated by the European Economic Community, Japan, Switzerland, Australia and Austria. Such difference in treatment is the subject of continuing official exchanges in which Hong Kong has made it clear to the importing countries concerned that it seeks no special advantages under these schemes, but only treatment similar to that accorded to Hong Kong's close com- petitors.
There has been particular concern over the exclusion of Hong Kong's textiles and non-leather footwear from the EEC's generalised preference scheme. Following a fact- finding mission to Hong Kong in March 1976, the EEC Commission subsequently recommended that Hong Kong, among other dependent territories, should be in- cluded as a beneficiary in the textiles sector of its proposed scheme for 1977.
The Commission's proposals were considered by the Council of Ministers in December and as a result Hong Kong's textiles are being included in the scheme for 1977-with the exception of what are described by the EEC as 'extremely sensitive products'.