TNAG-0627-FCO40-775-Effect-of-GATT-Multi-Fibre-Arrangement-on-Hong-Kong-negotiat-1977 — Page 115

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Mr Fretwell Side copy.

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Mr O'Neill, SAD

RENEGOTIATION OF THE MULTI-FIBRE ARRANGEMENT

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Mrs Hart wrote to Mr Dell on 6 April expressing concern about the effects on India and Pakistan of the various proposals to deal with cumulative disruption. Mr Meacher replied on Mr Dell's behalf on 28 April and Mrs Hart's Private Secretary wrote a further letter to Mr Meacher's office on 5 May. Mr Judd commented on Mr Meacher's letter of 28 April "Could our people put up any helpful compromise proposal? I share Judith's view."

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Mr Meacher's letter is largely addressed to the effects of adopting the globalisation proposal which would have involved the setting up of overall quotas for a number of highly sensitive textile products. In fact, the UK has now agreed to support the Commission's proposals which provide for the setting up of internal global import ceilings for these sensitive products, to be followed by a series of bilateral negotiations between the Community and the main textile suppliers. In this procedure, particular attention would be paid to negotiating stringent quotas with the "super-

competitive" suppliers of highly sensitive products.

3. The main pot at dispute between Mrs Hart and Mir Meacher is whether or not India and Pakistan should be included in the list of "super-competitive" suppliers. It is nobody's intention to include Pakistan. However, for certain sensitive products, Indie is a major supplier to the Community and, by any objective criteria, she would b included.

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Ministers meeting in RD last November concluded that we ought to try and do a little better for the poorest developing countries, especially for India and Pakistan, than we did for the richer super-competitives (Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan). However, they did not know at that stage how the Community's mandate for the MFA negotiations would look and in particular that there would be concentration on sensitive products. The question now is therefore whether we are to argue for the naking of an exception for India

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