TNAG-1876-FCO40-2667-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-Japan-1989 — Page 43

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' minds' advantage

SUMMARY NOTE ON ANGLO-JAPANESE SYMPOSIUM, AVIGNON, 3-5 NOVEMBER

1.

This symposium, something of an experiment, was organised on a private venture basis by Mr Dobbs-Higginson, Chairman of Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific. He was supported in making the arrangements by Mr Christian Adams, a Diplomatic Service mana officer on secondment to the DTI as Head of Projects and Export Policy Division. I attach a list of participants at

Annex A.

2. The discussion, under Chatham House rules, was extremely frank on both sides. Confidence should be respected. There was no formal agenda, although we agreed at the outset to cover a certain range of specific subjects on which an individual participant offered a few words of introduction.

The following, set out in extremely summarised form, are the main points of interest.

3.

TRADE AND THE EC

4.

Lord Jenkins gave an introduction on 1992 on standard lines. He gave a good puff to the Treasury paper on EMU published the day before and distributed copies to the Japanese participants. In discussion, attention was drawn to the new complications created by events in East Germany and the related issue of the FRG's relations with the GDR.

5. Other points made in discussion were:

- In slightly oversimplified terms, there appeared to be emerging two views on European development: first from those who advocated a speeding up of closer union amongst the 12, thus creating a matrix against which future relation with applicant countries and Eastern Europe, in particular the GDR, would be fixed; second from those advocating a looser Community relationship between nation states which would be more easily adapted to eventual enlargement to include Eastern European countries including the GDR (Howell and Gillmore).

- The Japanese conviction that, however fine the intentions, a unified Europe would inevitably have higher trade barriers in relative terms against the outside world (Ishihara).

- The problem was not Europrotection, but much more the non-tariff and cultural barriers to access to the Japanese market (Gormley).

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