Mo Thompso.
Caries to &ID (E)
wemtuzz! TRED
CONFIDENTIAL
in Quebill ~ Thupson tees
(Dictated
on
Top Copy passed
to Pus's office, for
ра
Governor! 823/1
telephone to S/TO by K.C. Kwong at 09.50 hours.
23rd November, 1977.)
Record of meeting with Viscount 12.20 pm,
22nd November, 1977
LKK 121.1616),
Davignon, EEC Commission,"
1.
At Tran's suggestion, Mills saw Davignon. He was accompanied by Burgess, Yue and Chau. Davignon had Tran and Beck with him.
2.
Mills explained the recall of Hong Kong delegation on
11th November, 1977: his instructions did not permit him to
negotiate cut back to below 1976 levels of trade. This was because
other importing countries waiting in the wing to negotiate with Hong Kong had indicated that they wanted even deeper cuts than those the EEC had asked for. Since 1976 was a good year for Hong Kong, Hong Kong wanted to salvage as much as possible by
holding the line at 1976. The U.S. had also indicated to Hong Kong that it would not accept freely negotiated cut back to
below 1976 levels as reasonable departure from the MFA. Therefore
although the Hong Kong delegation had returned to Brussels, it still could not be seen to be freely) negotiating away from the
1976 trade levels.
is this the weasel word?
3.
Mills said, if from this Hong Kong appeared to be a difficult negotiating partner, the reason was that the whole of Hong Kong future textile trade was at stake.
Mills also referred to the difficulties presented by the
new EEC categorisation. He could accept that it would be a prerogative to the importing countries to determine categorisation. He was however concerned with the effect of introducing it at
short notice. Between now and 1 January, 1978 there was not
sufficient time to "educate" the trade at either end, or for
the Hong Kong Government to revise its quota system accordingly.
The time required for such a revision had been estimated to
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