CONFIDENTIAL
reactions.
which was being considered in Washington and to obtain
You will of course have seen Mr Rippon's
response in paragraph 9 of the record of his talk with Samuels on 26 April. If the Samuels proposal is mentioned to you, we suggest that you might say that it would be welcome to us if the US did cease to insist
on a declaration on reverse preferences by prospective
beneficiaries of the US offer. Its great advantage
over the position the US have taken up till now is that,
whereas now a number of Caribbean Commonwealth countries
would probably decline beneficiary status under the
US scheme because they would fear the loss of their
protected market here for sugar, bananas, etc., under the Samuels scheme the Caribbeans would be able to
test in practice the value of the US offer to enjoy
both system for a period and to make ₺ a choice, if
has
there is to be a choice, in the light of knowledge of
the working of US preferences.
علمة
it was
4. On Hong Kong we need your assessment that while
there may be a recommendation to the White House that
the US should give Hong Kong some thing on the lines of
the EEC's offer the outlook is nevertheless not too
rosy. Rogers told me that the Americans would not
include Hong Kong if the Japanese did not;
not at all clear whether this reflected a personal view
or some thing he had heard from Washington. It remains
of course a primary objective of ours to secure Hong
Kong's inclusion in the US scheme. Our moves with
the Japanese (our telegram to Tokyo No 256) are mainly
dictated by considerations of the effect of inclusion
by Japan (and the nature of such inclusion if we obtain
I
CONFIDENTIAL
/it)
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.