Nord: 9/10/91
dti
the department for Enterprise
Overseas Trade Services
CONFIDENTIAL
RA Burns Esq,
AUS (Asia)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Whitehall
London
SW1 2AH
Direct line
Our ref
071 215 5230
Your ref
Date
7 October 1991
Dear Andyaw
,wise?
M. Ricketts: HMD
thic carli
15 9110
Latindeniers 17 James: FED)
πA3/X
me
EXPORT CONTROLS: HONG KONG POST 1997
Department of Trade and Industry
Kingsgate House
66-74 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6SW
Enquiries
071-215 5000
Telex: 8813148 DI HQ G
Fax: 071-931 0397
As you may know, we have been doing much work with the Hong Kong Government getting their export' controls properly in shape, both as far as COCOM and non-proliferation aspects are concerned. The key audience is, of course, the United States and we are glad to hear from Edmund Hosker's letter of 30 September to Stuart Nunn here (copied to NPDD and HKD) that as a consequence of a visit by a US team to Hong Kong in August, the US is now satisfied that Hong Kong has an effective export control system and meets the criteria for eligibility for general licence treatment as applied to intra-COCOM trade.
It is clearly right for us to continue in this direction but it is also important privately not to delude ourselves that this is the whole answer to the Hong Kong export licensing problem post 1997. I enclose a copy of a draft paper prepared by Mike Coolican, Head of the Export Control Organisation here, which considers a wider range of possibilities than we have hitherto thought it wise to discuss directly with the Hong Kong Government. You will see that, towards the worst- case end of the spectrum, export control policies applied by Western Governments to Hong Kong for COCOM and non- proliferation reasons could have a major adverse effect on its economy as at present structured and the prospects for its autonomous status as agreed between HMG and the PRC.
If the paper is correct it seems to point at least to an intensification of the present Hong Kong activity influencing US opinion, and perhaps to a strategic move of some significance by some big Hong Kong based companies. think we ought to be refining and tidying up these thoughts with a view to exposing them to the Hong Kong Government?
Do you
The
Cont/...2
96