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Foreign &
Commonwealth
Office
10
23 July 1991
JP Britton Esq
Industrial Property and Copyright Department
The Patent Office
Hazlit House
45 Southampton Buildings London
WC2A 1AR
HKC031/19
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
p.a. Chinese Copyright Law
CS 24127.
Aew Peter
CHINA:
COPYRIGHT LAW
1. Thank you for your letter of 9 July about possible action with China on copyright protection. The route we choose for tackling the Chinese with respect to securing the best protection for British copyright interests is of course for your judgement. I see no political objection to pursuing a bilateral agreement if that is thought likely to be the most productive. The Chinese themselves may have a preference for the multi-lateral route, eg working towards Berne accession, or for a Community based agreement. And negotiating a bilateral agreement may be a protracted business. But as you say, initially taking the bilateral approach will be a good means of focussing the Chinese on the particular needs of the UK. As Allan Murray suggests (his minute of 20 June) we might initiate fairly wide-ranging discussions with the Chinese, albeit
the basis
of a clear statement of what we would wish to see covered, to judge the likelihood of this approach working. Whatever conclusion we reach from this round of correspondence I suggest also that we should give the Embassy a further chance to comment before launching anything with the Chinese.
on
2. On a separate, related, point, the Prime Minister is to visit China later this year to sign the Memorandum of Understanding on the Hong Kong airport. We do not have dates yet, but the visit may be sooner We are starting to consider what other
interest in raising during the visit.
rather than later. issues we have an I have already
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