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There has subsequently been much activity but
regrettably not a final solution. The EEC dropped its earlier
stated plans to seek modifications to the form and content of
the agreement, but its spokesmen made it known on the public
record that they would be seeking certain understandings from
their trading partners regarding the manner in which an extended
MFA might be implemented.
I will not, indeed because of the confidential
nature of the Textiles Committee's discussions I cannot,
recount here the many shifts and turns which the negotiations,
both formal and informal, have recently taken in Geneva.
Throughout them Hong Kong has stuck firmly to a policy of
advocating a straight extension of the terms. In this
we have been in concert with many other participants,
developing and developed. But although a group of participants
including Hong Kong, who between them represent about 85 per cent
of world trade in textiles, reached a consensus last Sunday,
it was not possible for the Textiles Committee as a whole
to agree.
The partial consensus was on a complex form of
words agreeing amongst other things a flexible approach to
future negotiations within the framework and in accordance
with the provisions of a renewed and unchanged MFA.
I shall be putting the terms as agreed between the
negotiators before the Textiles Advisory Board so that,
on the basis of their advice, I can make a recommendation as
to whether the Hong Kong Government should stand ready to sign
a protocol, incorporating these terms, which is expected to be
opened later in the year to provide for the extension of the MFA.
/In
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