кли
70
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cc : Mr Galswortting Hug
Mr Ellert
Fáil
фа
pa Hong Kong
« Chum GATT
SART
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
HKK 040/24
17 May 1985
23 MAY 1985
TWD 2071
Dame Anne Warburton DCVO CMG
UKMIS GENEVA
the Ellyhan
यान
Dean Ambassador,
CHINA, HONG KONG AND THE GATT
1.
(59
ma Best
Can be fr
Thank you for your letter of 2 May to Robin Renwick, who has asked me to reply. As you will have seen from my letter of 29 April to Tony Lane, we here agree with your second paragraph. We were also grateful to see Barry Harding's comments on the DTI paper in his letter of 2 May. Discussion on the general issue of China and the GATT continues; but I am sure that it would be useful to know Dunkel's views.
2. We also agree with you about the need to get the Hong Kong application in as quickly as we can. We are of course fully aware of the urgency and, as I imagine you know, expect to send you soon a redraft of the Hong Kong Executive Council paper on Hong Kong's future participation in the GATT. It will be important to set the wheels in motion as soon as possible - both to reassure the Hong Kong trading community that the basis for the Hong Kong free market economy will continue, and to pre-empt any Chinese attempt to trade off co-operation over the future of Hong Kong in the GATT against their own application to become a Contracting Party. The latter, as Barry Harding points out, may be a few years off yet. It is most likely to coincide with, or follow shortly after, the review of their observer status. This underlines the importance of getting Hong Kong's Contracting Party status settled this year if possible. It is encouraging to know that Dunkel also sees the importance of ensuring that these two questions are not allowed to coincide.
Zoma
John Sheph
J A Shepherd
European Community Department (External)
Cc:
A J Lane Esq, DTI
CONFIDENTIAL