TNAG-0134-FCO40-170-Tariff-preferences-for-developing-countries-1969 — Page 28

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

responsibilities probably has the biggest problem.

options are open to us:

/10

The following

(a) To extend the list of exceptions while maintaining the

offer of unlimited duty free entry for the remainder.

(b) To reduce the depth of cut offered, with possibly only

modest cuts on the most sensitive items, leaving the list of

exceptions as it stands.

(c) To offer duty free quotas on virtually all goods

(presumably excepting cotton textiles) on the lines of the

E.E.C. offer.

(a) Some combination of the above.

19. Alternatives (a) and (b) do not have the administrative

complications of duty quotas. But they both raise considerable

difficulties of selection and justification for the statistical

reasons discussed above in paragraph 14. Even if all the

relevant trade statistics could be obtained as the basis for

evaluating offers, we would still be faced with the problem of

how to extend our list of exception in such a way as to achieve

equivalence of effort with the EEC and the USA when the Community's

offer is based on free entry limited by duty quotas. Assuming

some sort of total figure of trade could be arrived at for the

purpose of justifying our withdrawals, we would then face the dilemma of selecting further tariff headings as exceptions, with

all the difficultires of selection and arguments that this would

give rise to. The offer of duty reductions instead of free entry

also involves a number of serious objections; it would involve

a greater amount of discrimination between developing countries, than we would willingly contemplate given the duty free entry

we already provide for most of our imports from the Commonwealth;

/it would

Comments

Approved members can add comments, bookmarks, and private notes.

No comments yet.

Private Research Note

Private notes are available after approval.