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We had all, of course, read with interest the Foreign and
Commonwealth Secretary's statement to the Council of Ministers on 1st
April. Hr. Callaghan made several references to the need to safeguard
the economic interests of the Commonwealth and developing countries,
and to the Community's trade and aid policies towards them.
specific terms he said that the British Government is not satisfied that
the arrangements made in the entry negotiations are as good as they should
have been and he spoke of the need for 'serious improvement' of the
Community's generalised preference scheme both in the industrial and
agricultural sectors.
"In Parliament on 3rd April Mr. Callaghan said: 'We and the other
members of the Community are now preparing for the second stage when the
Government of the United Kingdom will place before the Council our detailed
proposals.
"It was useful that we had arranged to have these discussions in
London at this time. We had the opportunity to put forward and explain
our belief that the exclusion of Hong Kong's textiles and footwear is no
longer if it ever was justifiable or necessary when judged by any
objective criteria.
Our footwear exports are declining and in textiles wo
have not filled our quotas in the last few years. In other products, although
imports from Hong Kong have been a large proportion of total imports under the preference scheme, they have been very small in relation to the total
quotas available.
"On textiles policy both groups of officials re-affirmed our belief
that future restraints on textiles should be strictly in accordance with tho
terms of the new International Arrangement. We on our side explained the
action the Hong Kong Government proposes to take to continue control over our exports of most cotton and certain man-made fibre textiles to the countries
of the Community pending the possible negotiation of a bilateral agreement
under the International Arrangement.'
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