(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500M 2/69 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry
No. HKK 6/548/1
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
DRAFT Submission
Type 1 +
To:-
Mr. Wilford Mr. Godden
cc Mr. Preston
Commodities
64%
From
H. H. Stewart
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Hong Kong/UK Wide Sheeting and Sheets Agreement
1968
Flag A
Flag B
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Flag D
Problem
The Hong Kong Government and HMG are in dispute
over an important detail of this Agreement.
We are
persuaded that Hong Kong is in the right but Mr. Carey
in the Board of Trade has emphatically rejected a case
which Mr. Moreton put to him on Hong Kong's behalf.
Unless the Board of Trade are willing to concede Hong
Kong's view of the matter,
(1) at the best there will be intensification of the
growing ill-feeling against HMG on the part of
Hong Kong industry.
(2) at the worst the entire agreement, which has still
to be embodied in a memorandum of understanding
between the parties, could be endangered.
Recommendation
I recommend that Lord Shepherd intervene on Hong
Kong's behalf. A draft letter is attached.
Argument
Hong Kong's exports to the UK of cotton textiles
have been restrained since 1966 under separate country
quota, the arrangement governed by a document known as
the Heads of Agreement. However, in 1968 the Board of
Trade became satisfied that the sheeting sector of the
British cotton textile industry was suffering material
injury as a result of a very substantial increase in
/ imports
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