TNAG-0153-FCO40-189-Exports-of-cotton-textiles-to-Canada-1969 — Page 10

the

strongly pressed, therefore, that the negotiations should procced in Hong Kong, probably on September 8th/9th.

(6) There was a long argument on this point since the

Hong Kong representatives thought that it was in Bone sense a withdrawal on the british part from what had been agreed in the text of the statement to the Textile Advisory Board. Paragraphs 4 - 6 of the agreed text had been carefully drafted and did not contain any reference in terms to the criterion of serious injury. They referred in particular to the words "would enable trade to continue at a level acceptable to the Government of Hong Kong" in para. 6 of the agreed text. also discussed the meaning of the words "such as“ in para. 4 of it. I expressed the view that para, 4, taken as a whole, seened to me to imply that Hong Kong was most unlikely to accept voluntary restraint except when the importing country could make out at least a reasonable injury case, We left it at that.

We

(7),(8),(9) Mr. Jordan and his colleagues considered that these

three points seemed to re-raise the whole matter which they thought had been settled. They implied that whoever represented Britain at any renewed talks might well find himself at loggerheads with the Hong Kong representatives; and that in the last resort the Board of Trade were anying that they wished to exercise a right of veto over the outcome of the talks. Paragraph 6 of the agreed text scened to them to eet out very clearly the fact that no such right of veto would be exercised in the Canadian case. We then discussed the relevance of para. 3 to para. 6. Clearly there could be circum- stances in which proposed action on the part of the Hong Kong Government might be regarded by 13 as raising considerations of British International Policy; whereas Hong Kong night take the opposite view.

As to the words "full consultation and association", the Hong Kong representatives took the view that again these fell short of giving the Board the right of veto over Hong Kong's ́actions.

(10) There was no objection to this.

(11)

The Hong Kong view was that a review procedure would hardly be appropriate, given that the outcome of the talks with C a nada would be recorded in the form of a uni-lateral declaration by Hong Kong.

The up-shot of the meeting, therefore, is that Hong Kong wants to negotiate with Canada in the immediate future probably on September 8th and 9th. They want the talks to take place in Hong Kong. They have no objection to the presence of a British representative whether from our Trade Commission Office or from London; but they wanted clearly accepted, before the talks begin, that in the last resort they would have the right both to decide whether to accept restraint and also to decide/levels of such restraint. They would expect the same to apply in the forthcoming talks with

/Norway.