XN000022-1994-12-21 — Page 2

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Hong Kong supports China's entry into WTO

The Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, this (Wednesday) afternoon said Hong Kong was unreservedly of the view that China should be a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and it was in Hong Kong's interest that China was able to join the WTO as rapidly as possible.

Responding to media questions after visiting the Marine Department about China's failure to return to the GATT by end of this year, the Governor said: "We are pleased that substantive progress has been made."

Mr Patten said China was one of the most important economies in the world and had one of the largest trade balances with the rest of the world.

"It's important that China should be incorporated in international arrangements which will give the world more free trade and more prosperity," he said.

"What I am pleased about is that even though these negotiations haven't, alas, produced a satisfactory outcome as rapidly as we would have liked, the Chairman of the Working Party has made it clear that negotiations will resume early in the new

year.

"And I very much hope that those negotiations bring the success that wasn't possible this month."

Commenting on remarks about an executive-led government, the Governor said: "The question is whether we try to keep in place our existing industrial relations machinery, which has been extremely successful over the years, whether we try to combine that machinery with an effective legislative control.

"The truth of the matter is that we can't get this legislation through without the approval of the legislature.

"We now have to go back to the LAB. We have to try to persuade the LAB of our view about an enhanced package which will reflect what the legislature thinks, and then we have to go back to the legislature."

End Wednesday, December 21, 1994