MUGAAN
Mrs Edwina Currie MP
House of Commons
London
SWLA OAA
PS/Mr Maude
I submit a draft reply
M V Stone
Thank you for your letter of 6 May asking for comments on the points
raised in a letter dated 20 April from Mr A D McInnes, President of
the Association of Expatriate Civil Servants of Hong Kong.
We recognise that the Association's concerns are genuine ones but many of them are already taken fully into account in the Joint
Declaration and in the Basic Law which has recently been
promulgated. The provisions in the Joint Declaration are important
stipulations, contained in an internationally binding agreement, and
they should not be dismissed lightly. Taking the points
individually:
(i) and (iii) Both of these points are fully covered in the Joint
Declaration and the Basic Law which state that the Hong Kong dollar
will continue to circulate and remain freely convertible. They also
state that no exchange control policy shall be applied in the
Special Administrative Region. The Basic Law stipulates that the Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own concerning
types of taxes, tax rate, tax reductions and exemptions, taking the low tax policy previously pursued in Hong Kong as reference.