CONFIDENTIAL
country are rising even faster.
Those for 1972 at £23.7m
were nearly double 1971 at £12.6m and the 1973 figures should
be more than £50m. We have therefore a substantial trade
deficit. UK trade figures are attached at Annex B.
Trade Promotion
4
(CONFIDENTIAL)
Following exchange of Ambassadors with
China in March 1972 the British Consulate in Taipeh was
closed but commercial representation was taken on by a small
CBI office, which employed the former local staff of the
Consulate under the supervision of a British businessman.
We have recently agreed to increase HMG's subvention to CBI
from £7,000 in 1972/73 to £36,500 in 1974/75 to enable this
office to be strengthened with a full time British officer in
charge. It will then aim to carry out a range of commercial
functions similar to those of a diplomatic post and thus
provide a more effective service to British exporters.
(HMG's financial support of the CBI office is confidential).
5 At the same time the Taiwanese have been actively promoting
their trade in UK. There is already in London an unofficial
Taiwan information office (the Free China Centre headed by a
former nationalist Ambassador).
a separate trading organisation.
They now propose to establish
While we are not enthusiastic
about this new proposal, both for political reasons and because
Taiwan's imports to UK are already very high, we are prepared
to agree subject to certain conditions designed to ensure that
it is operated as a private company and that its title should
not give Peking cause for complaint. Consideration of this
proposal is not yet complete. No office will be opened or
announced before the Prime Minister's return from Peking.
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16
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