CONFIDENTIAL
UNCTAD
Preferences
Mr. Hughes and M. Wellenstein
the U.K. positions were now known.
U.S. for whom we were waiting.
agreed that the Community and It was the Japanese and the
2. M. di Martino said that the U.S. position was very unclear. They might be prepared to table proposals in May but he agreed with Mr. Hughes that this was much too close to the proposed June meeting with the developing countries. It would not be possible to have a discussion with the developing countries at this stage. Perhaps it would be possible to postpone the June meeting and to have it at the same time as the Trade Levelopment Board in Septem- ber. Mr. Hughes said he thought it would certainly require two months to harmonise positions among the industrialised countries and this assumed that the American proposals would be reasonable
ones. So far the new administration had been very vague on this.
3. Mr. Hughes then said that there was one point which very
much concerned us and that related to the beneficiary countries. We saw no satisfactory alternative to the principal of self-
election. And we hoped that, if Hong Kong chose to ask for the preferences, the Community would be able to agree to this.
M. di Martino said that this was a very difficult question; the inclusion of Hong Kong raised dramatic problems. . ellenstein suggested that the choice was between a very limited scheme with Hong Kong or a generous scheme which oxcluded Hong Kong. Mr. Hannay suggested that this was perhaps rather an over- simplification. If you left on one side the textile sector which
was covered in the Community offer by different arrangements, Hong Kong's exports did not cover a very wide field. The problem within the Community seemed more a psychological than an economic
one.
4. At this stage the meeting concluded and Mr. Hughes went to
see M. Deniau.
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