CONFIDENTIAL
that amendments to Appendices I and II adopted at a meeting of the Parties to the Convention shall enter into force 90 days after that meeting for all Parties "except those which make a reservation in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article". Paragraph 3 of the same article provides that during the period of 90 days any Party may, by notification in writing to the Depositary Government, make a reservation with respect to the amendment. It goes on to provide that:
5.
"Until such reservation is withdrawn the Party shall be treated as a State not a Party to the present Convention with respect to trade in the species concerned".
While I have not seen any reasons given for the statement in the last sentence of paragraph 1 of the paper attached to Mr Hughes' minute to the PS of 17 October that "it would be legally difficult to put in a reservation on behalf of Hong Kong", my own view is that there would in fact be no difficulty about our making use of the provisions referred to in the previous paragraph to enter a reservation to the recent amendment, with respect to Hong Kong. The fact that Hong Kong constitutes only part of the territory of the UK for the purposes of the Convention does not prevent us from making this reservation. Indeed, there is already a precedent for exactly this situation in the context of the CITES Convention. I enclose a copy of the Convention as it appears in the UK Treaty Series. If you will refer to footnote (5) on the last page you will see that it is noted that, in accordance with Article XXIII, the UK instrument of ratification contains a reservation in respect only of Hong Kong with regard to all species of reptilia and to the species "elephas maximus" in Appendix I. So, while there may well be objections from various quarters to our making this reservation in respect of Hong Kong, from a legal point of view there is no problem. As I have said, the effect of such a reservation, in accordance with article XV (3) of the Convention, would be that Hong Kong shall not be treated "as a party" to the Convention with respect to trade in the species concerned". Once the reservation is withdrawn, Hong Kong would, so to speak, return to the fold and be bound by the new ban.
Wlands
DM Edwards
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