CONFIDENTIAL
Commonwealth Consultations
11.
In the course of the Commonwealth consultations, Kemmis made a strong plea for Commonwealth support within the "77" for the inclusion of dependent territories. This was backed up by the Australians. The proposal seemed to be fairly well received but the Indians and Nigerians said they had certain reservations. They could support the inclusion of dependent territories who were "on the road to independence". Kemmis said that this introduced political concepts which were inappropriate in a scheme designed to be of economic benefit to developing countries. Afterwards, the Indians and Nigerians tried to explain that what they were concerned about was to keep sut Angola and Mozambique!
12.
of
Later the Jamaicans told me privately that the Commonwealth Caribbean countries had stood up for the inclusion of Hong Kong in discussions within the "77". The Caribbean countries are, course, very worried about the GPS because they are afraid they will lose more from it than they will gain, especially in view of the U.S. reverse preferences condition. The Africans are also far from enthusiastic about the GFS.
Other Countries
13. The Turks and the Greeks told me that, as far as they were concerned, they hoped the GPS would just go away. They consid- ered that the self-election principle should be followed without exception and that, if there were any exclusions, this should be done on the basis of competitive need product by product and country by country. But here we have reached the stage of voices crying in the wilderness.
14. Likewise, the French-speaking African countries do not hide their fear that the GPS will sell them down the river. They all met in Brussels on 30 September to harangue the Community en their grievances and especially the U.S. reverse preferences condition. I understand that the Community and the rest of the "77" had difficulty in persuading them not to come out openly against the whole concept of the GPS when the Special Committee resumed at the beginning of October.
DJCJ/mmg
Distribution:
Director, Hong Kong (3 copies) A.L.; A.B.; A.W.
Mr. 0.H. Kemmis Board of Trade
9
Mr. J.G. Morris, Board of Trade
Mr. E.0. Laird, Hong Kong Dept., FCO
Mr. M. Perceval, Trade Policy Dept., FCO Mr. J. Gray, UKMIS, Geneva
Mr. T. Muir, UKDEL, OECD, Paris
CONFIDENTIAL
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