CONFIDENTIAL
OTHER OPTIONS
10. Officials have considered the possibilities of reducing the
discrimination against Hong Kong in ways which did not involve
amending the terms of our Accession. These might be:
(a) The complete exclusion of textiles and footwear from
the Community's GSP. This would be contrary to the 1972
European Summit's call for improvements to the Community
GSP. The need to improve the GSP was endorsed at the
recent GATT Ministerial meeting in Tokyo; or
(b)
The possibility of taking the whole question of textiles
out of the GSP context and considering it instead in the
wider context of the Community's textile policy. We have
tried, so far unsuccessfully, to pursue this course in
Brussels. The Official Committee on Europe have decided
that we should abandon this policy early enough to allow
us to make the necessary administrative arrangements to
align with the Community GSP on 1 January 1974.
(In any
case it would of course leave unsolved the question of
footwear.)
(c) We could seek to lower the Butoirs (the limits within
the duty-free quota under the GSP available to any one
country).
In the view of the European side of the Office the third of these
options stands the best chance of acceptance within the Community.
But it would meet objections from the supporters of a liberal trade
policy. From the point of view of Hong Kong this option could
CONFIDENTIAL
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