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5. Mr Jordan expressed disappointment at the way in which the Textiles Surveillance Board (TSB) has worked. This is the body
that supervises the implementation of the MFA. The DOT share this disappointment since members of the TSB have shown themselves unwilling to adopt other than purely national positions.
Mr Jordan was given a categorical assurance that it is not the UK's or the Community's intention that Hong Kong should cease to be
a member of the TSB. He was told that, on the contrary, there were pressures to remove the United States and the EEC itself from their permanent seats.
6. EEC/Hong Kong Textile Agreement.
Mr Jordan's main concern was to ensure that there should be no
disruption of Hong Kong trade caused by delay in reaching agreement for 1978. (The present agreement, which is tied to the MFA, also expires at the end of this year.) Hong Kong had asked for the present agreement to be given a year's extension but had been refused. He hoped that any new agreement would be made as soon as possible in order to avoid disruption since it was common for order books in Hong Kong to be filled six months ahead. In the absence of a new agreement, Mr Jrdan hoped that there could be an informal understanding to extend the present agreement for one
year. The DOT have agreed to think about the problem and suggested
that Hong Kong should also talk to the Commission about it.
Line to Take
7. In general, I suggest that, in talking to Mr Jordan, you should be guided by what the DOT/DOI representatives said at the meeting on 8 February, as indicated above. He may seek your support for Hong Kong's position on the future of the MFA (paragraphs 3-5 above) on the grounds that any cut-back in the present level of access of Hong Kong's textiles to Community markets will endanger the future of social programmes. (This point has already been made in paragraph 11 of Hong Kong Telno 131.) If he does raise this point, I suggest your line might be that it would not begin to
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