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JM Healey Esq
"Our reference
UKELP BRUSSELS
Date
1 March 1982
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P60 4/3
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THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY AND HONG KONG
See 111
1. You will have received a copy of the letter from Clift in liong Kong and General Department of 24 February to Derek March, the Senior British Trade Commissioner in Hong Kong. I now enclose March's letter of 21 January to which it refers, and IIong Kong and
General Department's earlier teleletter on the same subject of
9 November 1981. -HICK 02017 3 19.81
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2. As you will see, the problem chiefly arises from two facts:
(i)
(ii)
Hong Kong, unlike other dependent territories was not included in or associated with the Community at the time of our accession and therefore enjoys anomalously the status of a third country vis-à-vis the Community;
There is no equivalent of a British Commercial Counsellor in Hong Kong. The British Trade Commissioner is the nearest thing to it, but he is by his constitu- tional position allowed to perform in Hong Kong only pure trade promotion functions ie he cannot send back economic reports even to HMG.
HICK 020/71981
I think that the pragmatic solution suggested in Hong Kong and General Department's teleletter of 9 November 1981 and of 24 February should solve most of the problems arising from Hong Kong's anomalous position, and that there should be no need for formalise some special arrangements with our Community partners for Hong Kong. However, we are a bit worried at the way that Hong Kong is listed just as if it was a straightforward third countries in lists issued by the Council Secretariat, such as those annexed to Document 10760/81 (Relex 84) of 16 November 1981. I should therefore be grateful if you could take this matter up with the Council Secretariat (if indeed they are the appropriate body), and suggest that long Kong be included in lists of third countries of this sort in some way which indicates more clearly both its particular status and also the status and restrictions on the functions of the UK Trade Commissioner there. The need to make Hong Kong's dependent status clear is political; the Chinese might justifiably complain if such a list showing Hong Kong as a "third country" were to come to their notice. The need to indicate the restrictions on the functions of the Trade Commissioner, eg in lists
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