RESTRICTED
BY BAG
See 9
Dear John,
HKEwill
FROM THE DIRECTOR TEEN
TRADE INDUSTRY AND CUSTOMS DEPARTMENT,
HONG KONG
تلسا
Janu
1978
A
8
Ishull wee
to avartis
I should imagine that you like me would prefer
never to hear again that evocative word "textiles".
However, I fear you may hear it from Lawrie Mills. He left for London last night and I told him he should try to get in touch with you to give you a first-hand account of the reception the new Agreement got in Hong Kong.
My own feeling is that the Agreement and the manner in which the Commission (particularly Tran) conducted the negotiations have done more harm to the UK-HK connection than anything else in the trade field in my recollection.
To turn from the general to the particular:
I was particularly disturbed by the reaction of your assistant, Mr. Thompson, when I spoke to him from Brussels about the last-minute Community demand for sub-limits in categories 2 and 3, over which there was so much confusion because someone misinformed the Governor.
Thompson seemed to think I was making a fuss about nothing and said the whole thing reminded him of a small boy stealing apples from the farmer's orchard. When he went on to say that he saw Hong Kong as the small boy, I just had to stop him, say I couldn't see any connection at all, and ask him to pass my message (whatever it was) to you.
The reason I'm writing is because I find it very disturbing that a Hong Kong Department man should see this light. If anyone was trying to steal apples it was the EEC. I've conducted a lot of bilateral negotiations myself and it was in my day a convention accepted by all negotiators that once you had confirmed a position you were bound by it. The negotiator's word was his bond, to coin a phrase. And in this case the Community had confirmed to Justin Yue in the last formal session before the suspension that the demands they had made in that session were complete: they had nothing to add. Indeed, all their tables (which showed no sub-limits for these categories) were headed "Proposition Confirmée".
J.A.B. Stewart, Esq., O.B.E.,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London SW1A 2AH, United Kingdom.
/I find
Jelly
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.