The Lord Glenarthur,
Minister of State,
82211.
Submission max бертель
Foreign & Commonwealth Office,
King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH.
121/5
HKC 121
Dear Simon
Mr Paul, HKD
For early advice please
Ps
P
7
9 Queen Street, Mayfair
London W1X 7PH
01-499 3353
19th January 1989
Ps/hord Glwarthi Ps/ Mr Eggar Ps/Pus
Chief Auk Mr Gillmore Mr McLaren
I thought I should write to you in a personal capacity to comment on Robin McLaren's letter of 18th November to Henry Keswick in the latter's capacity as Chairman of the Hong Kong Association. I believe that there is a serious risk that Britain's already small share of Hong Kong's imports will drop sharply after 1997; that this will also seriously affect our trade with China after 1997, and that far more radical thinking is required than emerges from Mr. McLaren's letter. Everything I say in this letter of course assumes that Hong Kong continues to flourish after 1997. If it does not then there will be little of commercial interest there anyway.
If I may I should like to put forward a number of general points:-
Robert Courth
(Ps/hand
(taarthour)
23/1
1. It goes without saying that the prime interest of both HMG and even more of the HK Government pre-1997 is to ensure that the Joint Declaration sticks and leads to a smooth transfer of power on the best possible conditions. Our long-term commercial interest will always take second place to this in Westminster/Whitehall and certainly in Government House.
2. It is not therefore always possible for British Ministers to pursue raw British commercial ends. As long as the British Trade Commissioner is a civil servant and therefore part of HMG he too will be inhibited by political considerations. As for the Governor he consistently and probably rightly makes clear that he does not intend to show favour to the British commercial interest. McLaren's letter brings this out clearly.
3.
Importing from Britain is not important to Hong Kong which can buy from anywhere. The admirable Review 'British Business in Hong Kong' dated August 30th and prepared by the British Trade Commissioner shows that only 3.1% of Hong Kong's imports come from the UK. Moreover new British investment in Hong Kong now lags behind that of the US, Japan and other countries. Uncomfortable though it is it is not therefore as important to HK that British business in HK should prosper as it is to us in Britain.
Mr.