Confidential
113
BOARD OF TRADE,
1 Victoria Street,
London, 8.W.1.
24th September, 1969.
Preferendas: B.E.C. and Hong Kong
Thank you very much for your letter of September 22. Before I left Geneva I sent you a minute recording what I had said to Di Martino. The Commission can now be under no illusions about our joint reactions to the 5% proposal.
2.
Two immediate issues seem to arise. The first is whether the time has now come to weigh in at high level both with the Commission and with the member Governments of the Six on Hong Kong's behalf, 1.e. whether to follow the suggestion made by Tran and recorded in the final sentence of para.¿ of your letter.
3. The second is whether to raise the Hong Kong issue openly in the Paris discussions which begin to-day.
4. On the second of these, I have told Owen Kemmis to keep closely in touch with you. Obviously the Hong Kong question will have to be discussed sooner or later in Paris with all the members of the Ad Hoc Group present but it is, as ever, a matter of choosing the right tactical moment, I have long expected that some other prospective donor would perform this service for us but it hasn't happened yot and we have contented ourselves with repeating our willingness to adhere to the self-election principle provided others do the same, An obvious tactic for the E.E.C., and perhaps some others, is to burke this issue in Paris in the expectation that once the UNCTAD discussions begin in earnest the Group of 77 can be relied upon to make disparaging noises about Hong Kong's entitlement to beneficiary status. If we, on the other hand, fores the issue in Paris we ran the risk of a rebuff from the other donors and it may not be in Hong Kong's interest to run this risk prematurely.
5. The first issue whether to make high level representations cannot really be divorced from the second. I do not think it realistic to suppose, whatever we do, that the E.E.C. will agree to treat Hong Kong in precisely the same way as other beneficiaries and the real question is how much can be salvaged. It may pay us to hold our hands for a little while longer. The E.B.C. offer on industrial products is bound to be affected by the eventual American position in particular and it is on the cards, as you record in para.3(g) or your letter, that all textiles might vanish for one reason or another before we get anywhere near the implementation stage. This could happen quite irrespective of the Hong Kong considerations.
6. I doubt whether we shall lose anything by waiting a little longer to see how things go but I should welcome your views
this
D.J.C. Jones, Eaq.,
United Kingdom Mission, 37-39 rue de Vermont, Geneva.
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