CODE 18-77
AWO Ltd
7/84
SKIAHJ
Mr Currie
FED
Reference. FILE
CONFIDENTIAL
147
EUROPEAN POLITICAL COOPERATION: UK PRESIDENCY; ASIA WORKING GROUP
1.
Mr Orr's minute of 14 February
contact for the AWG.
refers.
I shall be the HKD
two subjects
in Po Co:
I mentioned at Dr Wilson's meeting on 14 February, which HKD may wish to propose for discussion
2.
a) Hong Kong/GATT
of
We have proposed to the Chinese that they and we should jointly declare that Hong Kong, and after 1997 the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region, should be deemed to be a separate
contracting party to the GATT, under Article XXVI (5) (c)
the treaty.
If, as we hope, the Chinese agree to this at the
next meeting of the Joint Liaison Group in mid-March, we shall
want to approach ou r ma in trading partners to prepare the
ground.
There may be concern at the implications
for the
future might China in effect have two voices in GATT after
1997?
and s ome partners might be tempted to see this
procedure as an opportunity to negotiate advantages in terms of trade with Hong Kong. We hope that political considerations
Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong
the need to mak e the
Kong work and, therefore,
of
to secure Hong Kong's international trading status in plenty
time will prevail. But, depending
on the initial reactions of our trading partners to our
approaches on this (which we shall probably make in
to engage their political
and at Geneva) we may wish
by raising the matter in Po Co.
capitals
attention
حد
WE INCATTAI
LIKK 243/
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
10 MAR 1985
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
ΡΑ
Action Taken
Page 180Page 181
CONFIDENTIAL