TNAG-0248-FCO40-284-Effect-of-entry-of-UK-into-EEC-on-exports-from-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 68

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CONFIDENTIAL

Association under Article 238 of the Rome Treaty and Trade

Agreements

13. Association under Article 238 has been used in the case

of Greece, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia.

Algeria, Malta and

Cyprus are considering concluding such association agreements

with the Communities, perhaps as a development from the

initial stage of a preferential trade agreement. In essence

a trading arrangement is negotiated which, while basically a

free trade area or customs union, is tailored to suit the

needs of individual countries. The Community have concluded

trade agreements with Spain and Israel, in which tariff

reductions are on a preferential basis; and non-preferential

trade agreements with Iran and the Lebanon. The latter,

Austria and the U.A.R. have begun discussions for preferential

trade agreements.

Protocols

14. The Rome Treaty included certain protocols applying to

specific countries or commodities. These have, with one

exception, been superseded by later arrangements.

Declaration of Intent

15.

There is one more point to be noted which is relevant

to the conclusion of association agreements for developing Commonwealth countries and dependent. territories. The

Council of Ministers of the Community issued a Declaration

of Intent in July 1963 which confirmed the offer made during

the previous negotiations, that association under what was

later negotiated as the Yaoundé Convention should be open to independent Commonwealth countries in Africa and the

Caribbean. This Declaration (of which the full text is

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/attached