TNAG-0135-FCO40-171-Tariff-preferences-for-developing-countries-1969 — Page 198

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

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We have

associated states and from Morocco and Tunisia, it would be

sensible for us to exclude trade from the Commonwealth preference

area. A number of our largest suppliers from the CPA are, of

course, developed countries but we could argue that excluding

these from the totals would do something to redress the imbalance

that results from the small size of EFTA as compared with the EEC.

17. Taking these exclusions from the import figures on which we

would base our 5% supplementary amount, the effects on figures for

individual items are, not surprisingly, somewhat strange.

taken half a dozen of the sensitive items on which the EEC

Commission have proposed that duty quotas should be enforced under

their scheme and worked out equivalent figures for U.K. duty quotas

in the manner described above. The products and statistics are

given in Table 1 attached. In the case of BTN.53.11, woven

fabrics and sheep's or lambs' wool, we would find ourselves with

a duty quota of about $1,200,000 compared with existing trade

from beneficiary countries of $207,000; the duty quota the EEC

propose is 2,600,000%. In the case of BTN 64.01, Footwear with

outer soles and uppers of rubber or plastic, the U.K. duty quota

would be $369,000 compared with existing trade of $88,000 and the

EEC's duty quota would be $1,260,000. Comparative figures of

this sort clearly bear no relationship to the existing size of

the markets or their sensitivity to further imports from

developing countries. Increased imports free of duty that would

be so much in excess of existing trade would obviously be

unacceptable to the domestic industries concerned, even though,

overall, on all manufactures and semi-manufactures the increased

access to the U.K. market would not be wholly out of line with

the EEC's.

18. In order to arrive at some estimate of the overall figures

of trade that are involved we have taken in Table 2 imports of

/manufactures

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