ENG-1984 — Page 105

INDUSTRY AND TRADE

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domestic exports. Electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances consisting mainly of transistors, diodes and household type appliances amounted to $11,479 million or eight per cent of the total. Domestic exports of telecommunication and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment, valued at $11,002 million, contributed another eight per cent to the total. Other important exports included photographic apparatus, equipment, supplies and optical goods, watches and clocks (eight per cent of the total), office machines and automatic data processing equipment (six per cent) and textiles (six per cent). The direction and level of Hong Kong's export trade is much influenced by economic conditions and commercial policies in major overseas markets. In 1984, 64 per cent of all domestic exports went to the United States and the European Economic Community. The largest market was the United States ($61,374 million or 44 per cent of the total), followed by China ($11,283 million or eight per cent), the United Kingdom ($10,497 million or eight per cent) and West Germany ($9,522 million or seven per cent). Domestic exports to Japan and Canada increased to $5,151 million and $4,510 million respectively, with Japan representing four per cent and Canada three per cent of total domestic exports. Other important markets were Australia and Singapore.

Re-exports continued to increase in 1984, accounting for 38 per cent of the combined total of domestic exports and re-exports. The principal commodities re-exported were textiles ($12,708 million), electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances ($8,389 million), clothing ($6,184 million), photographic apparatus, equipment and supplies and optical goods, watches and clocks ($5,089 million). The main places of origin of these re-exports were China, Japan, the United States and Taiwan. The largest re-export markets were China, the United States, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore.

International Commercial Relations

Hong Kong believes in free trade. The aims of Hong Kong's external commercial relations policy are thus to safeguard its rights and to discharge its obligations in the pursuit of free trade. Certain important aspects of these rights and obligations are enshrined in various bilateral agreements as well as multilateral instruments such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA).

Textiles

Textiles trade is the major sector that has been subject to restraint. Bilateral agreements negotiated under the MFA govern Hong Kong's textiles exports to Austria, Canada, the European Economic Community (EEC), Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Three of these were concluded or renegotiated in 1984.

After four rounds of negotiations spanning two years, an agreement for three years from July 1, 1984, was finally concluded with Norway, thus ending the latter's import restrictions under Article XIX of the GATT against certain textile products from Hong Kong maintained since 1979.

The two-year agreement between Hong Kong and Finland expired in July 1984. Negotiations in April led to a new agreement with the same product coverage for the period August 1984 to December 1986.

The Hong Kong/Switzerland agreement which provided for an export authorisation arrangement of Hong Kong's exports of certain clothing items to Switzerland was further extended by another year until June 1985.

In 1984, two major developments initiated by the United States tended to disrupt and curtail textiles trade from Hong Kong. First, following an announcement by President

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