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Thursday, September 6, 1973
GATT TALKS HONG KONG TO ATTEND
lir. D.H. Jordan, Director of Commerce and Industry, will leave
for Tokyo on September 11 to attend the ministerial meeting convened by
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to launch a new round
of multilateral trade negotiations,
He will be accompanied by Mr. G.L. Pearson, Counsellor for Hong
Kong Affairs in the UK Mission at Geneva, who looks after Hong Kong's
interests in the various international organisations, including the GATT,
which are located there.
The trade negotiations, which are expected to span over two years,
are aimed at achieving expansion and further liberalization of world trade.
Special consideration will be given to problems of developing countries.
A Commerce and Industry Department spokes.nan explained that the
last round of multilateral trade negotiations, the so-called Kennedy Round,
was completed in 1967, This resulted in substantial reduction of tariffs,
particularly in industrial products.
"It is now envisaged that the coming round of negotiations will
go even further in that, for the first time in such negotiations, there will be an attempt not only to reduce tariffs but also to remove or reduce
the effect of non-tariff barriers to international trade, such as import
restrictins. These are of considerable interest to Hong Kong," the
spokesman said.
"Hong Kong can generally cope with reasonable import tariffs,
but other restrictions can cause serious inhibition of trade."
Nr. Jordan and Mr. Pearson are expected to return to Hong Kong
on September 15.
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