TNAG-0453-FCO40-518-Budget-of-Hong-Kong-1974-1975-1975 — Page 171

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ensure that there are adequate safeguards against exploitation of this kind.

107.

I know there have been suggestions for the regulation of other essential and non-perishable commodities, such as cooking oil and flour. But I think it will be

obvious that, in the absence of controls on supplies in areas other than rice, the question of Government action does not

And let me say a few words

arise in quite the same way.

on supplies. As I said in this Council on 29th November last, there are no shortages of foodstuffs in Hong Kong in the sense that consumers are unable to obtain them at the going price. It is certainly true that consumption of many foodstuffs, including locally slaughtered pork and beef and fresh vegetables, has been lower in the last year or so than previously and this, too, is shown in the Economic Background publication, but this reflects the fact that prices have advanced rapidly on a broad front and have thereby resulted in some fall in demand.

108.

But although, for example, flour and many other commodities are not in the same category as rice and, therefore, do not call for the same type of supervision, this does not mean that there is no room for action designed to help the consumer to become more effective in dealing with "rapacious" merchants. It is to this second type of situation in which "profiteering" can unambiguously occur

that I now turn.

109.

I have already said that, whilst it may not be easy to define "profiteering", there would seem to be scope for what would generally be described as "profiteering" where

Let me take four consumers lack full market information.

first,

examples:

panic buying. This has probably only been of any great significance in the case of rice, and the likelihood of this recurring has been reduced as a result of the various measures outlined by my honourable Friend, the Director of Commerce and Industry. But consumers put

themselves at the mercy of retailers when they seek to buy in excess of their needs because they feel they must secure their position for a period of time ahead.

If they were

/better.....