TNAG-0629-FCO40-777-Effect-of-GATT-Multi-Fibre-Arrangement-on-Hong-Kong-negotiat-1988 — Page 27

Tuir mean H.K, Judia

Pukurton. I

Din

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(b)

the totality of imports for all products, and

particularly for the sensitive products, must

be kept within the internal global

import ceilings which the Community

is now in the process of agreeing.

3. It is essential, as the Commission recognised,

that the bilateral negotiations be conducted with all

possible despatch. The UK notes with satisfaction the

Commission's commitment to take unilateral action on

1 January 1978 against any relevant supplying country

with which a bilateral agreement has not been concluded

by 30 November. The Community's determination must be

fully deployed throughout the bilateral negotiations.

supplying countries must not be allowed to lose sight

of this fact.

The

4. Naturally, like other delegations, the UK has

particular points which will be raised in the discussions

at Working Group and COREPER level, which will continue

until the negotiations open. These preoccupations can

and must be met in the drawing up of the all-important

detailed annexes to the Commission's mandate. Our experts

will naturally need to pay the closest attention to the

figures, which they have not yet seen, for the quotas to

be granted for individual products to individual supplying

countries. Like other Member States, we will have our own

views on which supplying countries should be treated more

leniently and which more harshly. We shall want to pay

particular attention to the growth rates which are to be

applied to the different categories of textile products.

In this context, we must underline that the UK industry

faces particularly serious difficulties in the cotton

sector.

/5.