CONFIDENTIAL
MEMORANDUM
HONG KONG AND THE GENERAL AGREEMENT ON
TARIFFS AND TRADE (GATT)
Flag A
The Joint Declaration of the United Kingdom and China, 1984
1. The Joint Declaration of the Governments of the United Kingdom
and China of 19 December 1984 (which is a binding international agreement) made provision for the reversion of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The Declaration rehearses China's intended policies
regarding Hong Kong which include the establishment of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region (the Hong Kong SAR) with its own special "basic Law" which will provide for the continuance of the laws of Hong Kong "basically unchanged", the continuance unchanged of the "current social and economic systems in Hong Kong" and its "life style" and an administration composed of local inhabitants. Taking into account "the history of Hong Kong and its realities", China intends that the Hong Kong SAR "will enjoy a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defence affairs", that it will retain the status of "a separate customs territory", and that it may maintain economic relations and conclude relevant agreements with states, regions and relevant international organisations
(see Article 3).
2. The intentions in Article 3 of the Joint Declaration are
further elaborated in Annex I to the Declaration. Economic and trading systems are dealt with in Section VI and international relations more generally in Section IX. In particular the third paragraph of Section VI provides that:-
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