XN000022-1996-05-10 — Page 3

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Governor Christopher Patten meets President Clinton

The Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, today (Thursday, May 9, Washington time) met with President Clinton at the White House.

Briefing reporters following what he termed "a very good meeting" with President Clinton, Mr Patten said that he had set out for the President some of the arguments for unconditional MFN renewal that he had been saying on Capitol Hill during his stay in Washington D.C. for the past couple of days.

Mr Patten said he told President Clinton that Hong Kong needed to see MFN renewed.

"That not to do so would be extremely damaging to Hong Kong. If MFN isn't renewed, if MFN is conditioned, we could lose up to 100,000 jobs and halve our growth rate, and see a savage blow to confidence in Hong Kong, and that would be, I think, a very severe blow at this particular moment," he said.

Mr Patten started the day with a breakfast meeting with US Secretary of State, Warren Christopher and State Department officials. He also had a meeting with US Secretary for the Treasury, Robert Rubin.

The Governor briefed leading representatives of the US media at a forum organised by the Washington-based Freedom Forum, and at a lunch meeting with the editor and writers from the Washington Times. He was later interviewed by Rowland Evans and Bob Novak for CNN.

During the evening (Washington time), Mr Patten flies across the country from Washington' D.C. to Seattle for the final leg of his North American tour. He will leave Seattle to return to Hong Kong on Friday, May 10 (US time).

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