TNAG-0832-FCO40-1040-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-1979 — Page 83

Separate Copies to:

CONFIDENTIAL

All Assistant Under-Secretaries

HKG 02571

1 GMAT 1/9

No i Bilst

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cc Deputy Under-Secretaries

Heads of Department Private Secretaries

(Personal)

PREPARATION OF PAPERS FOR INCOMING MINISTERS:

CONSERVATIVE PARTY MANIFESTO 1979

1. You may by now have seen a copy of the Conservative Manifesto. It may nevertheless be useful to set out the passages concerning foreign policy, since some of these appear in the sections of the manifesto dealing with home policy. As with the Labour Party Manifesto (my minute of 11 April) the briefs being prepared for incoming Ministers should, where necessary, take these points into account, perhaps by means of short additional briefs.

2.

The relevant passages (with references to page numbers) are as follows:

International Trade

3.

(Page 15)

20,

"Just as we reject nationalisation, so we are opposed to the other Socialist panacea import controls. They would restrict consumer choice, raise prices and invite damaging retaliation against British goods overseas. We will vigorously oppose all kinds of dumping and other unfair foreign trade practices that

undermine jobs at home.

We fully support the renegotiated Multi-fibre Arrangement

for textiles and will insist that it is monitored effectively and speedily. We also believe in a revised 'safeguard' clause under GATT, to give us a better defence against sudden and massive surges of imports that destroy jobs."

Agriculture

4. (Page 17)

"Our agricultural and food industries are as important and as efficient as any that we have. They make an immense contribution to our balance of payments; they provide jobs for millions of people and they sustain the economy of the countryside. Labour have seriously undermined the profitability of these industries, without protecting consumers against rising food prices which

/have

CONFIDENTIAL