TNAG-0464-FCO40-529-Entitlement-of-Hong-Kong-to-EEC-Generalised-Scheme-of-Prefer-1974 — Page 138

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should be concentrated on the most needy. He did not accept that Hong Kong was a developing country. Nor in any case, as an advocate of decolonisation, did he care for dependent territories. Comparisons with Yugoslavia and Romania would leave him unmoved, though some ground might be made by reference to the Korean position.

Verhagen and Klinkenbergh did not therefore give much for our chances. Their own Ministry would be at best indifferent and there was unlikely to be pressure on Hong Kong's behalf from development co-operation officials, whose support was crucial. Our best chance was to concentrate on a factual and statistical exposition of the deteriorating Hong Kong position vis-à-vis her main competitors, and to show that those hardest hit in Hong Kong by the present discrimination were the poor. (Mr Pronk is said to be susceptible to the argument that a country's per capita GNP may conceal a wide range of incomes and thus be misleading).

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We were received courteously at the Foreign Ministry. On footwear, van Geen said on a personal basis that his Ministry were likely to recommend that the Dutch sunport the Commission position. This was for tactical reasons, broadly speaking, the Dutch supported the Commission's GSP proposals for 1975. They did not wish to attack individual items in the package, as this

But he wondered how would only encourage others to do likewisé. firm the Dutch position on footwear would be if several other countries felt strongly that the present situatior. should continue. On textiles, he was non-committal, as the Commission had not yet put forward proposals. On super-competitive beneficiaries .he took note of Dore's arguments.

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I am not sure how much reliance we should dace on the

Bark views of the development co-operation official we saw. thought his side of the Foreign Ministry could support the Commission's proposals on footwear. On textiles, he took note of Loige's arguments but said that he could say little until the Commission had made proposals. To our surprise, he said that he was having second thoughts on the question of super- competitive beneficiaries. He was not now sure that the Commission's proposals would help the least developed countries, who seemed mainly anxious to export processed agricultural produce. He was worried that their effect might be to reduce the total quantity of goods entering the Community duty free in the GSP.

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