C45AEY
RECEIVED I
DESK.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
3 MAR 1990
FA
PRY
CACHI
ful
158
Mr Scott Monier American Embassy
Grosvenor Square LONDON
W1A 1AE
Di
کات
M. Monier
Telephone 01-
270 2627
Your reference
Our reference
Date
30 January 1990
RECEIVER
ISSUE OF IVORY EXPORT LICENCES BY HONG KONG
INDEX
31 JAN1990
1. You asked the Department of the Environment recently about press reports that Hong Kong had issued export licences for shipments of ivory to countries which had banned ivory imports. I am writing to clarify the position.
The details of the issue of the licences are as follows:
(a) To Japan: One French-owned consignment of 1,039kg of raw ivory originally imported for sale to a Hong Kong trader in August 1989 - the sale did not go through leaving the French owner to find a purchaser elsewhere.
Both
(b) To FRG: Two locally-owned consignments of worked ivory (netsuke, bracelets, combs and toothpicks) totalling 5.6kg. licences were issued and subsequently returned for cancellation.
Both licences were issued before 18 January. The position of the authorities was that provided the ivory had been legally acquired and legally held in Hong Kong then they had a duty to examine the application on its own merits given that the African elephant was then still on Appendix II. With the coming into force of the Appendix I listing on 18 January, Hong Kong is not now issuing export licences to those countries which have implemented the CITES ban.
Yous siceely
Julian Furnis
J Evans
Maritime, Aviation and Environment Department