TNAG-0385-FCO40-431-Trade-relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-the-EEC-1974 — Page 178

CONFIDENTIAL

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partners and to the Commission putting them on notice that in

next year's review we shall press most resolutely for the

extension of the Community's GSP to Hong Kong textiles and

footwear. In stating this case we can draw our partners'

attention both to the fact that the situation has changed since

1971 to the detriment of Hong Kong (in that the Philippines,

Thailand and Yugoslavia · all of them serious competitors of

Hong Kong have become beneficiaries under the scheme for cotton

textiles), and to the specific promises Mr Rippon made to Hong

Kong in 1971. The case will not be so easy to argue for non-

cotton textiles and for footwear, where the position of Hong Kong's

major competitors has not changed since 1971. But we can point

to the increased difficulty of justifying discrimination against

our own territory on these products also, at a time when the

Community is committed to improving the terms of the GSP and

in the face of the fact that concessions have been made to Hong

Kong's competitors on items of interest to them in other fields.

10. I ask my colleagues to agree that we should take the

action described in the preceding paragraph when the Council of

Ministers discusses the details of the GSP for 1974, perhaps

this month, more probably in November. Although it will not be

our objective to obtain new arrangements for Hong Kong textiles

and footwear for 1974, it is important that we should be able to

tell Hong Kong that we have fully and firmly stated their case

before they learn that the details of the 1974 GSP have been

finalised.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE

October 1973

CONFIDENTIAL