15.
should agree to discuss the position and not wait for the country
•
concerned to take Article XIX action.
In view of the lack of agreement Mr. Hughes concluded the meeting
and it was arranged to resume the discussion at 4 p.m. the same
afternoon.
June 15th - 4 p.m.
Mr. Hughes suggested that Mr. Jordan should negotiate in Stockholm on ́
the basis of the Swedish requests but take the position that the cases
the Swedes had presented on the three new items were not sufficiently
strong to justify restraints.
Mr. Jordan said that he would first like to ascertain whether or not
the U.K. rosition was that there should be no restraints at all. If
the U.K. was taking this position then the talks in Stockholm should
be cancelled and not postponed. He reiterated that he felt this matter||
should have been taken up with the Governor a long time before.
Mr. Hughes said the restraints on anoraks and Knitwear had already been
conceded and it was therefore now very difficult to withdraw them.
He thought, however, that the Swedes should be told that Hong Kong could
not concede the new restraints as they did not consider these were
However, on the shirt industry as a whole there appeared
justified.
to be a sufficiently strong case for the Swedes to deal with it in
G.. .T.T. under Article XIX.
Mr. Goldsmith said he had had the opportunity to speak to Baron de Geer
in Faris that morning and had been given to understand that the Swedes
were not particularly concerned about the Blouse and Underwear items,
and that the item on which they really wished to obtain restraint was
They also wanted the restraints on Anoraks and
Synthetic Shirts.
Knitwear to continue.
Perhaps it would be possible to reach agreement
these
by saying that Hong Kong would be willing to agree three items if the
/Swedes
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.