TNAG-0135-FCO40-171-Tariff-preferences-for-developing-countries-1969 — Page 160

CONFIDENTIAL

and that we see no reason to inour the odium of the 'old'

Commonwealth by not giving them adequate time for consultations.

I understand from MAFF, incidentally, that the revised offer

is to be made on the same basis se our original offer 1.0.

duty-free entry plus a 50% tariff reduction on certain items.

11. The time for consultations with Commonwealth lde's will be

immediately after the conclusion of the OECD discussions and

well before discussions in UNCTAD begin

Beneficiary Countri

12.

The PCO paper does not come out with a clear line. I

recommend that we should stick to the principle of self-

election as long as possible in the hope that Hong Kong will be

included in the preferonce sehene and urge other donors to

accept this principle. It is clear, however, that many donors

will wish to reserve the right to exclude one country or

another on economic or political grounds, and I can think of

no obvious counter move which we can make by way of

retaliation in the event of the exclusion of Hong Kong.

should however have a 'fall back' position in the event of

Hong Kong's exclusion and put forward the proposition that

some sert of special arrangement should be made for lleng Kong.

The latter are aware of this possibility and have already

tabulated their preferences. In descending order of

undesirability the possibilities appear to be :-

a) exclusion by country;

(b) exclusion by country by product in initial

exceptions list as well as safeguard prosedures;

CONFIDENTIAL

/(0)