TNAG-0240-FCO40-276-Entitlement-of-Hong-Kong-to-generalised-tariffs-preferences--1970 — Page 124

CONFIDENTIAL

336

Trade Policy Department,

Foreign and Commonwealth Office London S.W.1

Mir heard

태

27 November, 1970.

Чай Жаб

Draft Brief for the Prime Minister's Visit

to Washington Hong Kong and the G.P.S.

Thank you for the copy of your draft brief on this subject which has I understand now been modified in the light of Cabinet Office instructions on format. I am not sure how much of your background note will now appear in the "white brief" but I suggest that something on the lines that follow should be added to the "pink brief" even if space is tight and some of the material in your draft speaking notes has to be sacrificed.

2.

As I see it, the real aim of the Prime Minister raising the subject in Washington is to get the Administration to drop their insistence on a prior or parallel Japanese contribution on Hong Kong. One can only guess whether this condition is being maintained for tactical or substantive reasons but if the Americans dig in their heels on it and, as we expect, the Japanese remain obdurate, then Hong Kong loses all hope of benefiting under the American, EEC and, assuming enlargement, UK schemes.

:

J.G. Morris, Esq.,

Department of Trade and Industry,

1 Victoria Street, S.W.1.

cc:

(M. Perceval)

Trade Policy Department.

Mr. de Courcy-Ireland, (American Dept.) Mr. Kinnear, (Hong Kong Dept.)

C.S. Inglefield, Esq., CRE.5, D.T.I.

1

DKK 6/12

CONFIDENTIAL