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Mr Bunken, HKD
FROM:
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DATE:
Reference
SE Hogwood (Mrs) ESED
12 January 1993
DESK OFFICER
REGISTRY
Mrs INDEX
PA
Action Vanaf
Hogword
ESID
Thanks.
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FED informed
MONTREAL PROTOCOL: TAIWAN
Апи
1571
1.
You sought advice on the points raised in paragraph 4 of Mr Davies' minute (flag A) of 8 December. Briefly, he queried when the next opportunity would be to reach a satisfactory solution on Taiwan, and whether PRC would have to be party to any formal decision.
2. The next opportunity to reach a formal decision on Taiwan would be either at the next Conference of the Parties
(due to take place in the Autumn), or at a meeting convened specifically for that purpose (Article 11 of the Protocol provides for Extraordinary Meetings to be convened either by a Meeting of the Parties or at the written request of any Party, provided that at least one-third of the Parties support the request within six months of its being communicated to the Secretariat).
3.
Chinese agreement would not be necessary as the Rules of Procedure (Rule 40) provide for the Parties to the Protocol to reach decisions by a two-third majority vote.
4. In theory it would possible to reach a decision on the application of the Protocol to Taiwan but in practice this is unlikely. The participation of China in the Montreal Protocol is, in the words of DOE, "the jewel in the crown" and the Protocol Parties are likely to be keen to avoid taking any action which may have political repercussions, or risk the threat of China withdrawing from the Protocol. The DOE have also argued in the past against seeking to negotiate a satisfactory solution at a formal meeting of the Parties (flag
B).
5. It was clear from my discussions at Copenhagen that trade and political interests outweigh the environmental arguments for seeking a formal decision and I suspect these would prevail if we were to put forward a proposal for formal discussions on this issue. You will recall that a number of our EC partners were of the view that any proposed action should be acceptable to PRC. Therefore the only conclusion to be drawn is that the majority of the Parties will adopt the US interpretation of the
/sue/leslie
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