TNAG-0135-FCO40-171-Tariff-preferences-for-developing-countries-1969 — Page 197

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but, subject to the comments of customs and tariff division, it

would appear to be practicable to obtain monthly returns from

customs of imports from beneficiary countries under named tariff

headings and to maintain a watch on these within the Board of Trade

Arrangements would have to be made for Customs officers at the

ports to be instructed to charge the full rate of duty on

instructions from the Board of Trade and for this to be done very

quickly, as happens with changes that are frequently made in

revenue duties.

Such an arrangement is likely to be unwelcome to

the Customs but would be less cumbersome than alternative

arrangements.

It would not matter too much if precise quotas

on the sensitive products were exceeded by small amounts as long

as the full rate of duty were imposed quickly. Such a system

would be' justified on the grounds that the EEC Customs authorities

were operating similar arrangements.

16. The next questions are whether the EEC's formula for

calculating duty quotes on the sensitive products should be

applied without change in our case, what the practical effects

of so doing would be or whether a different formula would be to

our advantage. One may assume first that the definition of

beneficiary countries that we adopt will be the same as that of

the EEC, except as regards the developing countries already

enjoying preferential entry into either market. Since the

EEC are proposing to exclude intra-Community trade when

calculating the supplementary amount of the quota, it would be

logical for us to exclude our trade with EFTA as the British

equivalent, although the size of EFTA as a market-including the

U.K. is less than half that of the EEC. If we exclude Portugal

as already having preferential entry to our market this could be

regarded as comparable to the position of Greece and Turkey which

have preferences in the EEC and are also prospective beneficiaries.

Since the EEC are also excluding their imports from the African

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