TNAG-0237-FCO40-273-Trade-relations-between-EEC-and-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 148

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of eventual liberalisation, i.e. of terminating the CTA at

the end of that period or at some later date. In the

meantime they would wish the text to remain unaltered, but

stood ready to make changes in the application of the

Arrangement.

9. Ernst identified the three broad areas in which the

exporting countries were seeking improvements in the operation

of the CTA as being

(a) limits;

(b) flexibility;

(c) administrative practices.

We then proceeded to examine the EEC position under these

headings with, as ever, Ernst's reiteration of the informal

and "no commitment" nature of his statements.

Limits

The

10.

Ernst prefaced his remarks by noting that in no other

area of EEC trade policy were the divergences in practice

between Member States as wide as in the case of Hong Kong.

problem of harmonising trade policy was thus exacerbated when

dealing with Hong Kong. This thought prompted him to

philosophise briefly on the even greater problem which might

result from British entry.

"no

We went over the figures and this

led Ernst to add, apparently casually, that the problem of U.K.

entry in relation to cotton textiles could turn out to be less

daunting than it might at first appear because there was

problem in fabrics". If U.K. imports of cotton piece goods

were deducted from total cotton textile imports from Hong Kong,

the net figure (i.e. for garments and made-ups) would be not

so far above the present Community imports of Hong Kong cotton

textiles. He added that the real disparity in imports from

Hong Kong was between the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands (and

he might have added the Nordic countries) on the one hand and

France, Italy and Belgium on the other.

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/11.