TNAG-0385-FCO40-431-Trade-relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-the-EEC-1974 — Page 63

i

HANSARD

NOV 1973

Reference

254 27

788

CODE 1. 19

F

25427

Hong Keng

Mr. Hordern asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, in view of the United Kingdom's obligation to align with the LEC's Gen- eralised System of Preferences on 1st January 1974, what action he is taking to remedy the exclusion from the Gen- eralised System of Preferences of Hong Kong's textile and footwear exports.

Mr. Anthony Royle: At a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the EEC on 6th November my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster made a strong statement on the position of Hong Kong. He said that during the enlargement negotiations in 1971 the Community had agreed to admit Hong Kong to its Generalised System of Pre- ferences, subject to the exclusion of her textiles and footwear exports. Our Chief Negotiator at the time had agreed to this arrangement but he had made it clear to the Community that it would be the United Kingdom's continuing concern to avoid discrimination against Hong Kong. The arrangements agreed by our partners in 1971 may have seemed to them not ungenerous. But an important considera- tion now was that since 1971 the situa- tion had changed to the detriment of Hong Kong and that the Philippines, Thailand and Yugoslavia, all of them serious competitors of Hong Kong. had become beneficiaries under the Com- munity's scheme in respect of cotton textiles. We had examined this matter carefully and had concluded that in pre- sent circumstances it was no longer accept- able for discrimination to apply against Hong Kong.

As this aspect of the scheme will re- main unchanged for 1974 my right hon. Friend has put his colleagues on notice that in the context of next year's review we intend to press resolutely for the in- clusion of Hong Kong's textiles and foot- wear in the scheme from 1975 onwards.

!