C.S. 166
CONFIDENTIAL ##
For discussion
on 30th August 1977
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XCC(77)67
Copy No. 28. of 80 Page 1
MEMORANDUM FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
FUTURE OF THE MULTI-FIBRE ARRANGEMENT (MFA) AND HONG KONG'S POST-1977 TEXTILES EXPORTS
TO THE EEC
Introduction
As foreshadowed in memorandum XCCI(77)3 dated 22nd June 1977, the GATT Textiles Committee met on 5th July in Geneva to discuss the future of the MFA after its expiry on 31st December 1977. The purpose of this memorandum is to advise Honourable Members of the outcome of that meeting; and its relevance to Hong Kong's textiles exports to the EEC in 1978 and beyond after the expiry on 31st December 1977 of the current EEC/Hong Kong textiles agreement under the MFA.
Textiles Committee Meeting, 5th to 24th July 1977
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At the start of the meeting the EEC, having finally reached agreement among the Member States on a negotiating mandate, made a statement declaring its position on the future of the MFA. From Hong Kong's point of view, the major elements of the EEC position were as follows:
(a) Intended stabilisation of the rate of penetration of
imports by comparison with 1976 levels for products with a very high rate of market penetration. For a limited number of these products, such stabilisation implied that the growth rate of all imports giving rise to disruption of the EEC market would in no case exceed the growth rate of consumption for each of the products concerned,
(b) More favourable treatment for small supplier
countries and/or newcomers to the market. This problem could be resolved, it was suggested, if supplier countries having a dominant position in the EEC market (Hong Kong is the principal supplier) were to accept, within limits which would be defined, a "more equitable redistribution of import opportunities".
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The EEC also stated that:
(a) its policy could be implemented within the framework
of the present MFA; but if this view were contested
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