TNAG-0135-FCO40-171-Tariff-preferences-for-developing-countries-1969 — Page 129

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4.

point of view there was no objection to excluding

products -- the H.K. objection was to discrimination);

I told Tran that I would take note of the points he had

made and asked to be provided with the now so called "Hong Kong

sensitive list". He said that he would try to let me have a

copy early this week. In the meantime he said that he would

look at my tentative suggestions in relation to the figures. He addid that the material on Hong Kong I had previously supplied, which had been translated in the document "Apercu sur

Hong Kong", had been very useful. The Commission would not have

got even as far as it did with the Member States without this

material.

5. If what Tran says in (a), (b), (c), (d) and (f) in paragraph 3 above is correct then the position in practice for Hong Kong

Lay not be as bad as it at present looks on paper. But on past

experience I would not take this from Tran alone without checking, in view of his predilection to put forward his own thoughts as though they wore already accepted by the Community.

suggest we now need is another talk with the Germans and perhaps

the Dutch before tackling di Martino again. Perhaps this can

be arranged in Paris later this week.

What I

6. I think I should also add that at one point in our talk Tran referred to the Commission's judgment that the American

proposals would in practice cxcludo Hong Kong, Taiwan, South

Korea and Mexico. I said that I did not think that this would

necessarily be the case. There were a number of Hong Kong

exports to the U.S. not on the exceptions list. where Hong Kong accounted for less than 10% of U.S. imports. I also pointed

out that any discrimination would also not necessarily apply to

Hong Kong alone but would be based on performance. Finally I

repeated that Hong Kong as such had no objection to the longth

CONFIDENTIAL