CONFIDENTIAL
HKB 091/3
L6 DEC 1993
120447
MDHIAN 5158
85
CONFIDENTIAL
FM HONG KONG
TO DESKBY, 011230Z FCO
་
TELNO 1824
OF 01114OZ DECEMBER 1993
TOP COPY Q DIST?
INFO IMMEDIATE UKREP JLG HONG KONG, UKDEL OECD, PEKING
(83)
Your telno 1009:
Committee
Observer Status for Hong Kong in the Trade
We understand the reasons for your reservations about our recommendation regarding the way forward in our telno 1814. Indeed, we considered this option ourselves, but were concerned that, while it would reinforce our position on the principles involved, it might be less likely than the course recommended in
telno 1814 to achieve our fundamental objective, namely observer status on the Trade Committee.
2. We should explain that we recommended putting our application on hold temporarily pending further discussions in the JLG primarily because of our assessment, in the light of feedback from UKDEL OECD and our Permanent Representative Geneva that even without Chinese objection support for our application on the part of some OECD members is not entirely free from doubt. Against this fact, public condemnations of our application by the Chinese, in the event of unilateral action by us to press ahead with our application, would be highly damaging to our objective of securing trade committee observer status eventually. Any open objection to our application from the Chinese and withdrawal of support from some OECD members would in our view be even more damaging to perceptions of our commercial autonomy than any scepticism arising from our apparent decision to withdraw or withhold temporarily our application due to Chinese displeasure. It was this consideration which prompted us to our recommendation notwithstanding the important point of principle involved referred to in para 2 of TUR.
3. In our view, an assessment of whether there would be sufficient OECD support for our application in the face of possibly strident Chinese objection is crucial in determining the most advantageous course of action. We envisage that in the face of Chinese opposition, questions about the benefits to the OECD of observer status for Hong Kong will be revisited. Nothing would be more damaging to perceptions of our commercial autonomy, in our assessment, than the collapse of our application owing to
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