TNAG-0300-FCO40-336-Entitlement-of-Hong-Kong-to-generalized-tariffs-preferences--1971 — Page 91

NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN

Registry

No.

ITY CLASSIFICATION

Top Secret.

Secret.

Confidential.

Restricted. Unclassified.

PRIVACY MARKING

DRAFT

To:-

EEC and TEXTILES - AE PAPER

...In Confidence

Type 1 +

From

Telephone No. & Ext.

Department

1. Mr Bottomley held a meeting on this on 20 October (Messrs Keeble, Simmons and myself were present).

2. We agreed that the conclusion in the paper was the only one in the circumstances. However while

making this point in the brief for the Secretary of

State, the following other points should be covered:-

(i)

3.

The paper sets out clearly the various difficulties

that following the proposed course of action will

entail; many of these difficulties can be traced

to the decision to introduce (against the strong views of the FCO at the time) a tariff policy

instead of the current quota system. It will

not be easy to strike a balance between the

interests that will be affected by our decision

and particularly between those of the LDCs who

will be affected by our adaptation to the CTA

agreements in 1973 and the British textile

manufacturers.

It is clear that this balance

must include both sweet and sour.

In sum this means full adaptation (including textiles) to the EEC's GPS Scheme; strongly pushing

the duty free entry mentioned for 1973 and maintaining

the decision to introduce tariffs in Britain in 1972

against the growing pressure from British industry to

amend this policy.

SVARIET