TNAG-0167-FCO40-203-Exports-of-textiles-to-United-Kingdom-1969 — Page 183

DRAFT REPLY TO DESPATCH FROM THE GOVERNOR OF

HONG KONG dated SEPTEMBER 27, 1968.

have the br

I am writing to thank you for your despatch

(CR.12/5401/62-V) of September 27 about the

discussions which took place in Hong Kong on

September 5 and 6 on exports of wide sheeting

and sheets to the United Kingdom.

>

2. Let me assure you at once that there was no

intention on our part of ignoring the existing Heads

of Agreement. As you will recall, the opening

sentence of the Board of Trade aide-memoire of

August 9 referred in terms to the possibility first

notified in a letter dated 31 October 1967, that

"Her Majesty's Government might wish to ask the

Government of Hong Kong to impose restrictions on

exports of wide sheeting and sheets..."; and the

final sentence of the same aide-memoire, dealing with

offsetting compensation, stated that "Her Majesty's

Government would be prepared to consider some

modification to existing arrangements for the

sensitive categories".)

3. The plain fact is, as we see it, that the

categorisation provisions of the Agreement are not

unduly onerous; it is not altogether surprising

that the scope which it allows for concentration on

exports of particular types of textiles, (given the

generous share of the market reserved for Hong Kong

within the limitations applicable to "restrained"

countries as a whole) should have resulted in a

request for a modification in respect of one of them.

I do not mean to imply that you can expect a shoal

of similar requests.

/4.