H Steel Esq CMG OBE
Legal Secretary
Law Officers' Department Royal Courts of Justice Strand
London WC2A 2LL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
19 June 1985
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Dear Henry,
HONG KONG AND THE GATT
In 2016
We should be grateful if you would consult the Attorney General about our proposals to establish Hong Kong as a separate contracting party to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The problem, and our approach, are set out in the attached Memorandum, which has been prepared by Paul Fifoot.
The two points on which we would particularly welcome the Attorney's advice are at paragraph 15 of that Memorandum.
We have confined the Memorandum to the GATT case since that is one of the issues which we are likely to discuss with the Chinese next month. It may well be that, having regard to the policy set out in paragraph 3 of the Memorandum, there may be other organisations or treaties which pose comparable problems. We are already aware of the case of the Customs Cooperation Council, where it will be necessary to establish that Hong Kong "is autonomous in the conduct of its external commercial relations" and where we will want to take the same line. hope, however, that the Attorney's views on the issues raised in the present Memorandum will avoid our having to trouble him with further cases raising a similar point.
I
If the Attorney wishes, I or Paul Fifoot will, of course, be available to discuss the matter further.
I am sorry to have to say that we are under some time pressure, because we will need to go over the ground with the Hong Kong authorities before we discuss the issues with the Chinese. If it were possible for us to have the views of the Attorney General within the course of the next week, that would accordingly be a very great help.
bcc Mr Fifoot
Mr Galsworthy
دس امام
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John Freeland
HKK 040/24
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2 5 JUN 1985
covering CONFIDENTIAL
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