TNAG-0046-FCO40-82-Britain-s-entry-into-EEC-effect-on-trade-with-Hong-Kong-1967 — Page 54

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points on Hong Kong officials more firmly in the second round

of consultations.

37.

If Hong Kong officials continued to press for a declaration

attached to the instruments providing for British accession, we

should tell them that their suggestion has given rise to the

following further thoughts on our part.

(a) Would a Declaration be negotiable with the Six

It is impossible to offer any very confident

opinion about the reactions of the Six in

advance. But their readiness or otherwise to

agree that a declaration should be made, would

clearly depend on what it was going to contain.

If we were to suggest a declaration in the

general terms proposed by long Kong officials,

namely to the effect that our responsibilities

for our Dependent Territories would be un-

affected by our accession, they would realise

that it was in fact addressed to the case of

Hong Kong. Since they would observe that the

proposed declaration appeared to be no more than

a statement of the obvious, they would be likely

to wonder why we wanted it at all, and to

suspect that they were being inveigled into

agreeing to something with a hidden meaning. If

we tried to avoid this danger by making the

declaration more specific, perhaps relating it

to the need to take account of Hong Kong's

special problems in the context of consideration

of trade questions, we should run up against

dangers of a different order. In the last

negotiations, the Six, prompted by the French,

would not agree to including in a Conference

text references to British responsibilities for

Hong Kong, and the need to have regard for the

/living

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