TNAG-0045-FCO40-81-Britain-s-entry-into-EEC-effect-on-trade-with-Hong-Kong-1967 — Page 142

CONFIDENTIAL

BRIEF NO. G.1

EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY

PART I

Talking points for use with the Governor and Officials

HONG KONG

Britain imports considerably more cotton textiles from

Hong Kong than all the Community countries put together.

In 1965, rather less than 40% of our consumption of cotton

textiles was imported, a proportion several times higher than

that of any other major industrialised country. It is

therefore inevitable that you should have a very strong interest

in the future of those exports should we enter the Communi ty.

The only common protection on imports of cotton textiles by the

Community as a whole is the common external tariff. Britain

would have to apply this over an agreed period to imports from

outside the Community. While this might have some impact on

our imports from Hong Kong, the effective restrictions on your

exports of cotton textiles are the quantitative limitations

maintained by importing countries under the GATT Long Term

Arrangement. Until such time as the E.E.C. establishes a

common commercial policy and they have not made very much

progress so far - quantitative restrictions on imports from

outside the Community are a matter for the individual Member

States. This would seem to indicate that we would not need

to impose more stringent controls on our imports of cotton

textiles as part of our arrangement for entry.

CONFIDENTIAL