TNAG-0141-FCO40-177-Hong-Kong-concession--in-Kennedy-Round--on-unmanufactured-to-1969 — Page 6

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From the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affa irs.

To the Governor, HONG KONG.

Date: 30 December, 1969. No. 568

Hong Kong Preference on

Unmanufactured Indian Tobacco

Following Hong Kong's Kennedy Round concession on unmanufact-

ured tobacco there was, in December 1968, correspondence between

Derek Jones in Geneva and Pradhan the Resident representative of

India to GATT and UNCTAD. The Indians maintained that Hong Kong

had no right to retain Commonwealth preferences for Malawi's un-

manufactured tobacco while withdrawing them from India.

2. Having failed to persuade Hong Kong to change her mind by

approaching Derek Jones, the Indians then presented an Aid Memoire

to the Board of Trade on 18 June. This Aide Memoire and a copy of

our reply was enclosed with McKelvie's letter of 7 October 1969, from this Office to Tom's, in the Board of Trade, which was copied to you.

Now enclosed is a copy of a recent letter from the Indian High

Commission on this subject.

3. Bharadwaj came to this Office before writing his letter and

explained that he had received confirmation from his Government that

preferential treatment is in fact accorded to certain imports from

Hong Kong under the terms of the UK/Indian Trade Agreement 1939.

We said that we would be pleased to receive details and undertook to

pass them on to you. We added that we doubted whether this inform-

ation

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