THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT:
Mr Whomersley
14
2 MARSHAM STREET LONDON SWIPER
ROOM S6/18 TELEX 22221 DIRECT LINE 071-276 5410
SWITCHBOARD 071-276 3000
Wilson Fung Esq
Air Services Negotiations Unit
Economic Services Branch
Government Secretariat
Lower Albert Road
HONG KONG
(BY FAX)
GTN 276
per
IAD FAX:
071-276-5390
My Ref:
181/2
}
STRY
SEP 1993
FFICER
PA
STRY on Taken
3 September 1993
Your Ref:
cc: Mr Hall (AMD)
Mr Bunter (HKD)
CAW
3/9/93.
Dear Wilson,
HONG KONG/US ASA TALKS
Thank you for your letter of 27 August to Judith Ritchie. I agree that it is prudent to have texts ready to bring the new arrangements into provisional effect and to deal with consequential amendments to the UK/US ASA. We are, as you suggested, seeking advice from the FCO Legal Adviser.
However, a telephone call I had from Mary Street in the US DOT yesterday makes it clear that the round the world route is very much a live issue which will have to be confronted. Indeed, this could be a point on which the whole talks founder.
She told me that a conversation between a United Airlines employee and somebody engaged by Cathay in the US had suggested that the round the world route from Hong Kong was not on offer. She claimed that the US side had been assuming that this would form part of the eventual deal. Whether this stems from a genuine misunderstanding of what was said at the last round of talks (at which I was not present), whether it is wishful thinking or whether it is a deliberate ploy to cover the fact that DOT failed to spell this out as one of their key requirements when they spoke to me previously, I do not know. Whatever the explanation, it is fairly clear that United attach importance to the route and that DOT will be in considerable difficulty if they cannot deliver.
Mrs Street asked me to find out what the actual Hong Kong position was and reiterated that the US side would rather not have the talks at all if it was clear that they could not succeed.