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granting her full autonomy in her external commercial
relations. Mr. Cowperthwaite agreed, but said that this was
ruled out on political grounds.
6
Mr Muir said that if at some time in the future the
Community were to join the G.A.T.T. as a single body, and if
there were still no possibility of Hong Kong being given
commercial autonomy, a possible course might be for Britain
to seek the views of other countries as to whether the G.A.T.T.
provision that no rights and obligations were established
between metropolitan powers and their dependent territories
was still relevant. This might be a way to give Hong Kong a
: voice in the G.A.T.T. without the need to change her constitut-
ional position. Britain gave her dependent territories G.A.T.T.
treatment, though not obliged by G.A.T.T. to do so, and he
thought that other metropolitan territories behaved similarly:
in those circumstances and at the appropriate time, it might
well be possible to make a fair case that the existing provision
no longer made sense. This was not an issue that had been
raised in the G.A.T.T. but in Whitehall, and they could con-
tinue to bear it in mind. Mr. Gildea said that this was a
matter which could perhaps be raised when the G.A.T.T. was
being reviewed.
Arrangements for the Grant of Preferences to Developing
Countries
7. Mr. Haddon-Cave said that India had lobbied against Hong
Kong's claim to be a developing country. But in general her
prospects of benefitting under the U.N.C.T.A.D. or Part IV of
the G.A.T.T. were fairly good. He quoted the precedent of
Australia where Hong Kong was benefitting from special arrange-
ments for developing countries. Mr. Cowperthwaite also drew
the British Delegation's attention to the fact that the E.E.C.
Commission seemed to have accepted in their report that Hong
Kong was a less developed country, since Hong Kong was
mentioned under the sub-heading "Relations with other Less-
/Developed
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