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Your reference
Our reference
Date
27
August 1970
R Mowforth Esq
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
SW
Dear
Now fort
GATT AND HONG KONG
Your letter of 21 August conveyed some questions from your Legal Adviser concerning provisions of the GATT relevant to the wider question of whether Britain can retaliate under the GATT on behalf of Hong Kong.
2.
The answers are as follows:
2. I attach a copy of the notification to the effect that UK would apply the GATT to dependent territories, including Hong Kong. A list of such territories was sent at the same time, and I attach a copy of a revised list which was sent to the GATT in 1951. You will note that there was no mention of whether the listed terri- tories were separate customs territories or not: this only arises in the context of specifying such territories to which the GATT was not applied. Only Jamaica was so specified.
b. No such action has been taken. As you know, Hong Kong has not acquired "full autonomy in the conduct of its external commercial relations" and therefore would not be "deemed to be a contracting party."
C. You should draw the Legal Adviser's attention to Article XXIV:1. This deals with the territorial applica- tion of the GATT, and provides in particular for his immediate purpose that the CATT is applied to non- metropolitan customs territories on whose behalf the GATT is accepted under Article XXVI:5(a).
Yours sucuch
mi had worsheat
M J Woodhead
C
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