P
CONFIDENTIAL
(33)
To:
Director of Commerce and Industry, Hong Kong
From: Counsellor (Hong Kong Affairs), Geneva.
Memorandum No. 107
File No. GVA/1/1
Date: 29 October 1969
Textiles: Discussions with GATT Secretariat
I saw Salib on 28 October in the GATT Secretariat.
The purpose of my visit was to receive drafts of the Hong
Kong statements made at the recent meeting of the CTC which would be included in the summary record. There were no difficulties with these and Salib accepted the few amendments I had to suggest.
2. At that point Norbom (who has recently returned to the Secretariat from a spell with the Norwegian Ministry of Finance) joined us and the opportunity was taken to have a
general discussion on the textile situation and the outlook
for the renewed meeting of the CTC in December. I should
add here that Norbom has returned as Director of the Special
Projects Division and that he has resumed overall control of
textiles issues. During his absence Salib has been working on textile policy in the General Division (under Selberg as Director) and textiles statistics have been dealt with
by Leonhardt within the Special Projects Division. The two
sides will now be unified again under Norbom's direction.
3. Salib started the conversation by saying that the Secretariat were now trying to get exporting and importing
countries together with a view to bilateral negotiations on their individual problems. When I questioned him it emerged
that what he had in mind was something like the precedure
which had been adopted when the CTA was last extended in 1966/67, that is that improvements in the administration of
the Arrangement should be obtained through the conclusion of
CONFIDENTIAL
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