BRIEFING FOR PRIME MINISTER'S QUESTION TIME: 22 FEBRUARY 1990
HONG KONG IVORY
HKC Isılı
K.
LINE TO TAKE
·8 MAR 1990
DE
INDE
Reservation has encouraged poaching?
Hong Kong is not a market for poached ivory because there is already a total ban on imports of ivory. And in any case Hong Kong only allows exports of legally-acquired ivory which has
CITES documentation.
138
Controls in Hong Kong?
We have every confidence in the strict controls on ivory within Hong Kong, which include licensing for the possession of quantities over 5kg and monitoring movements of ivory between licence holders.
Exports
Exports during the period of the Reservation are permitted only to countries which have not implemented the ban.
Evidence of Hong Kong complicity in poaching? (IF PRESSED)
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If Dr Leakey can produce evidence of complicity by Hong Kong
traders in illegal trade in ivory we shall of course investigate.