TNAG-1054-FCO40-1304-Trade-relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-the-UK-1981 — Page 139

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Mr William

(BA)

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British Trade Commission in Hong Kong

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Mail Address GPO Box No 528 Hong Kong

Telex HX 73031 Cable Address Uktrade Hong Kong Telephone 5-230176

9th Floor Bank of America Tower 12 Harcourt Road Hong Kong

R D Clift Esq

Hong Kong and General Department

FCO

HKCK 121110

RECEN IN REGISTRY MO. 51

27 APR 1931

DECK OFFICER

Your reference

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Date

REGISTRY

INDEX

PA

Action Taken

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20.4

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Apul Aft pl.

ECO 314/25

9 April 1981

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IMPORTS OF CONSUMER ELECTRONICS FROM HONG KONG

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I am more than a little concerned by signs that the British Radio and Electronic Equipment Manufacturers Association (BREMA) and the Radio Industries Council (RIC) are seeking early action against Hong Kong exports of consumer electronics to the United Kingdom. As you may know, we have had two visits from BREMA/RIC teams in the past eighteen months and there have been numerous exchanges about the statistics for Hong Kong exports, particularly of monochrome television sets, to the United Kingdom. We went to a good deal of trouble on BREMA's behalf last year to try to sort out the conflicting statistics about the real extent of Hong Kong's consumer electronics manufacturing industry, but no action seems to have been taken to investigate the figures at the UK end. I think that the situation is now best summed up in our Credas 33 of 2 February, 56 of 17 February and 64 of 25 February which are no doubt available to you.

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2. I had rather hoped that we had managed to convince the Departments of Trade and of Industry that figures being quoted by the RIC were not correct, ie. that many of the monochrome television sets shown in the figures produced by HM Customs and Excise as being of Hong Kong origin were in fact re-exports from other suppliers in the area. I was therefore disturbed to receive the enclosed copy of the record of the Secretary of State for Trade's meeting with the Consumer Electronics Sector Working Party on 19 March during which no attempt appears to have been made to deploy the arguments in my Creda 56 (a) to dispute the figures supplied by Mr Sutton of the RIC and (b) to persuade the Industry to cooperate with Hong Kong manufacturers rather than to seek to limit their development.

3. I have not yet discussed this issue formally with Bill Dorward but from contacts with his Department over the past year while attempting to clarify the state of the Hong Kong industry, it has become clear that they will not welcome the idea of a voluntary restraint agreement. If we attempt to promote the RIC line, particularly before we have got our statistics right, we risk starting up yet another area of dispute between Britain and Hong Kong in a year when the MFA renegotiations will probably provide

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