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Mr Youde
IMPORTATION OF WILD LIFE FROM CHINA INTO HONG KONG
1.
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We need to reply to the Governor's telegram no. 86 and
you agreed that we should do so before submitting the papers to
Mr Blaker.
2.
The basic paper is the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. HMG have signed
but not yet ratified the Convention. Only the United States have
so far ratified. We ourselves expect to be in a position to ratify
shortly, but we are under an obligation to consult our EEC partners.
We hope to encourage them to ratify early, but it is unlikely that
all of them will be in a position to do so before the end of the
year, or that the Convention will enter into force before then. We
would probably extend the Convention to our dependent territories,
and would certainly be under pressure to do so for Hong Kong. Neither the CPR nor Taiwan attended the Washington conference but
Taiwan subsequently signed the Convention. It is therefore improbable
that the CPR will accede to it. The present situation is therefore
that Hong Kong is not yet bound by the Convention, but is likely to
become so, and that China is unlikely to become a party.
3.
Under the Convention the onus is primarily on the State of
Export to provide the necessary certificate that the species concerned
is not endangered. But where the State of Export is not a party to
the Convention, the parties are required by Article X to get comparable
certificates from them.
CONFIDENTIAL
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14.