TNAG-0300-FCO40-336-Entitlement-of-Hong-Kong-to-generalized-tariffs-preferences--1971 — Page 120

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DRAFT

EEC NEGOTIATIONS:

ASSIMILATION TO COMMUNITY POLICY ON

GENERALISED PREFERENCES AND COTTON TEXTILES

INTRODUCTION

This paper seeks authority for the line which we shall

shortly need to take in the Conference on how we adapt

after accession to the EEC scheme of generalised preferences,

in particular in the difficult field of textiles.

*

Background

2. On 1 July this year the Community, as the first of

the major donors, brought into operation their scheme of

generalised preferences, permitting with various exceptions

the import duty free of supplies from the developing

countries. We intend to introduce on 1 January 1972 a

broadly similar scheme but with various differences.

*

Our scheme will extend to developing countries duty free

entry without limit to virtually all manufactured goods with

the exception of textiles and a range of food and agricultural

items. The Community's scheme covers the same developing

countries and employs much the same rules of origin. But

the EEC scheme is more limited in the food and agriculture

sector; it does not in the industrial sector include

basic materials;

and in the case of a number of items

duty free imports are permitted only up to a certain

ceiling related to past trade.

1.

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