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for one moment the gain that has come to Britain from some of the
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MS (RTHK)
Mr Waddington, I think the Hong Kong people
are very anxious to know when the British Government plans to embark
on the procedure of selling the BNO passport to third countries.
MINISTER: Well, there is no problem about this. We
have got to put in place the regulations which must govern the way in which a person applies for the BNO passport after the 1st July
11 1987. Now, I am told that there is really no difficulty about that.
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I haven't actually looked at the words of the draftsman but there
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are no technical difficulties at all. It is purely setting out there how a person goes about applying. The system will be in place on the 1st July 1987 for people who wish to apply i
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for the BNO passport to do so and I therefore think that we are on
course so far as that is concerned.
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MS (RTHK)
It is not a matter of the procedures of
the BNO passport application, it is the matter of reception of the
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MINISTER: Well, I thought that I had made that point. We have got between now and the 1st July of 1987 to explain to
other countries the significance of the new passport.
I did point
out that actually if you look at the wording in the new passport
there is no reason in common sense why it should not be at least
as acceptable as the present passport. In fact, common sense
tells one that actually it should be slightly more acceptable.
I don't see any difficulties arising. The difficulty that arises
and this is not a difficulty which can't be overcome, the difficulty
that arises is that when you introduce a new passport then the old
visa abolition agreement doesn't apply to the new passport as
it applied to the old, so you have got to go through the effort of re-negotiating visa abolition arrangements with those countries which at the present time allow visa free entry to people in Hong
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