TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1993
GOVERNOR PATTEN:
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Smuggling is all too big a
business, and something we suffer from in particular is
the theft and smuggling of luxury cars. I think that if
you were with us in Hong Kong, you would have heard
yourselves anecdotes about what happens. You might even
have heard about those who go north of the border to have
serious discussions about how smuggling and car theft can
be restricted, and find themselves being driven around in
right-hand drive Mercedes or BMW's .
(Laughter.)
GOVERNOR PATTEN: It is a problem. It is a
problem that we are addressing with the authorities in the PRC and a problem which we hope they will take seriously. Fortunately, we've managed to reduce the amount of car
theft and smuggling over the last few months, largely, I
hope, by some of the activities of the Independent
Commission Against Corruption. That has been a very
substantial move forward. But we still have to be
extremely careful. We still have to be on our guard, and
we need the active the active cooperation of the
authorities in the PRC.
One other thing which, of course, promotes smuggling is duties and tariffs, as we know in England
from the history of Cornwall in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. The more you can have free trade, the less smuggling you have. It's another reason why about the only thing on which I am ideological is free
trade.
/MR. BERGER:
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