§ Mr. Hordernasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, in view of the United Kingdom's obligation to align with the EEC's Generalised System of Preferences on 1st January 1974, what action he is taking to remedy the exclusion from the Generalised System of Preferences of Hong Kong's textile and footwear exports.
§ Mr. Anthony RoyleAt a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the EEC on 6th November my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster made a strong statement on the position of Hong Kong. He said that during the enlargement negotiations in 1971 the Community had agreed to admit Hong Kong to its Generalised System of Preferences, subject to the exclusion of her268W textiles and footwear exports. Our Chief negotiator at the time had agreed to this arrangement but he had made it clear to the Community that it would be the United Kingdom's continuing concern to avoid discrimination against Hong Kong. The arrangements agreed by our partners in 1971 may have seemed to them not ungenerous. But an important consideration now was that since 1971 the situation had changed to the detriment of Hong Kong and that the Philippines, Thailand and Yugoslavia, all of them serious competitors of Hong Kong, had become beneficiaries under the Community's scheme in respect of cotton textiles. We had examined this matter carefully and had concluded that in present circumstances it was no longer acceptable for discrimination to apply against Hong Kong.
As this aspect of the scheme will remain unchanged for 1974 my right hon. Friend has put his colleagues on notice that in the context of next year's review we intend to press resolutely for the inclusion of Hong Kong's textiles and footwear in the scheme from 1975 onwards.