TNAG-0149-FCO40-185-Cotton-textiles-to-France-1969 — Page 33

CONFIDENTIAL

4. You will have received a short account of what happened en the Hong Kong/France issue in my telegram under reference. UKMIS, Geneva, Saving Telegram No. 57 of 17 April has also been copied to Hong Kong. This memorandum supplements these accounts and also encloses a copy of the draft report as amended.

General Peints

5. Apart from the announcements by Italy, France and Japan of certain measures of liberalisation not recorded in COM.TD/ W/93 (reported in paragraph 3 of the draft report) there was some general discussion of the position on twr products left ever from last time, namely jute and tea. The outcome of the exchanges on these roducts is recorded in paragraph 5 of the report, together with the position of Austria on certain questions raised with her during the country by country examination in the autumn of last year but not answered at that time. I also made a general statement on the France/ Hong Kong position. This is referred to below.

Product by Product Discussion

6. The Group then conducted an examination of the twenty five groups of products listed in COM.TD//93 in the light of the additional data on trede contained in COM.TD/ /95. The discussion was on the whole very poor. Apart from myself ♦nly India and Pakistan made any valid points, Pakistan' S numerous interventions largely consisting of pointing out the cases where imports from developed countries into a restricted market were large compared with imports from developing countries. One or two other countries, such as UAR and Acrea, also listed some items where they had an interest without making any real case. The Korean interventions were confined to Japanese restrictions.

7. The items to which some reference was made were as follows (you will see that the discussion was not

of a very high order):

Section 3, Natural honey, raised by Pakistan. France claimed that bee cultivation assisted fruit production. This item is liberalised from Hong Kong.

Section 5, Onions, tomatoes, potatoes, raised by Pakistan and UAR.

The countries involved To Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Belgium/Luxembourg) mostly pointed out that their restrictions were seasonal and that, e.g., UAR could supply during the months when there were no restrictions.

Section 8, Rice, referred to by Pakistan. horway said licensing was het restrictive.

Section 11. In reply to Pakistan, Denmark said requests for licences for molasses were granted freely and without discrimination.

Section 12, Tobacco. Pakistan complained of French restrictions on cigars and cigarillos. The main French defence seemed to he that their State tobacco monopoly had been in existence a very long time.

CONFIDENTIAL

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