CONFIDENTIAL
44
Rok boty kumar
Not me on
To: Director of Commerce and Industry, Hong Kong.
File
Moria
6/312/1
и
24/4
Date:
18 April 1969
From: Counsellor (Hong Kong Affairs), Geneva.
Memorandum No. 64/69
File No. VA/4/2
My tele ram No. 15 of 16 April
GATT
Committee on Trade and Development
Group en Residual Restrictions
Introduction
The Group met from 14 16 April to carry out an examination of residual restrictions product by product as classified in Secretariat document COM.TD/W/93. This was the first occasion on which French residual restrictions have come under examination in the CTD context (as distinct from the useless general debate at Sessions of the Contracting Parties) and the first time the French have submitted a list of their restrictions to the GATI since 1962.
In
2. The major interest of this meeting was, therefore, the French restrictions. But it led to no exciting confron- tations ar clashes of principle. This was partly because
the nature of this examination, product by product. consequence of this there was no French list as such before the Group and the actual length of their list and the severity
the restrictions in force were discreetly hidden in the dispersion. But it was also partly due to the pusillanimity of the developing countries' attack. The Indians and Pakistanis made some points but they did not get to the heart of the matter. The Koreans were only concerned with one or two Japanese items and the rest kept relatively silent. The Ja panese themselves could not say anything about French restrictions because they are not a developing country. given the length of their own list and therefore their own vulnerability, I wonder whether they will even say anything very much in the Industrial Products Committee the week after next.
But,
3. The final reason for the lack of fireworks was that I held myself strongly in check. I understand that, at one af Long's internal Secretariat meetings before the Group met, someone said the rumour was going round that Hong Kong was going to severely attack France at the meeting. Nothing would have given me greater pleasure. But I am sure that, in the long run, the tactics we are pursuing of applying pressure gradually but reasonably when the opportunity offers will he more successful or less unsuccessful in terms of concrete results.
A.
纪
140
CONFIDETI AL
()
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.