XN000022-1973-09-06 — Page 4

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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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