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in view of the fact that Hong Kong has no independent voice in CITES and has to depend on the good offices of HMG.
d) If we were to refuse, pressure from Hong Kong's ivory traders to
extract compensation for their losses is likely to be transferred
from the Hong Kong Government to HMG. Although our Legal Advisers do not believe that we have any legal obligations to pay compensation, the possibility that we would face litigation in the
UK Courts cannot be excluded.
e) A short-term reservation was made for Hong Kong when the African
elephant was originally listed on Appendix II of the Convention in
1977, although this was in the early days of CITES when the public's
perception of environmental issues was rather different and before
the dramatic deterioration in the position of the African elephant.
10. The main arguments against entering a reservation are that
a) It would run counter to the Department of the Environment's
policy of seeking to take a leading role in the international
campaign to ban the ivory trade and would damage the UK's standing
in CITES even if we made clear that the reservation applied only to
Hong Kong. In particular, it would conflict with the UK's own
recommendation that the ban should be implemented immediately and
would turn on its head our voting record at the last CITES
Conference.
b) Our abstention on behalf of Hong Kong was almost universally
condemned by the press and any departure from the 90 day deadline
will be fiercely criticised by the press and the conservationist
lobby on the grounds that it will offer a loophole through which
poached ivory can continue to reach the market. There is
considerable scepticism among conservationist bodies about the
effectiveness of the Hong Kong Government's controls against illegal
trade in ivory, despite their undoubted good intentions. There is
also considerable dispute about the status of Hong Kong's stock
pile.
While the Hong Kong Government maintain that it has all been
imported legally, the conservationists believe that a large
proportion of the ivory was originally poached.
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