TNAG-0384-FCO40-430-Trade-relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-the-EEC-1973 — Page 73

CONFIDENTIAL

ANNEX C

THE LEGAL ASPECT

1.

Alignment of the UK's GSP with that of the EEC is covered

by Protocol 23 of the Treaty of Accession.

The terms of the

explicit agreement concerning Hong Kong reached during the

enlargement negotiations are not recorded in the Act of Accession

itself, but in the records of the enlargement conference.

constitutes a legally binding agreement.

This

The Community's GSP is

implemented by means of annual Council Regulations.

Those

concerning textiles and footwear omit Hong Kong from the list of

beneficiaries. Accordingly, it would, as a pure matter of

Community law, be possible to modify the relevant regulations by

including Hong Kong among the list of beneficiary countries,

since this would not involve any breach of the Act of Accession

itself.

2. The Legal Advisers consider, however, that the terms of the

Community Agreement on Hong Kong in principle regulate definitively

the question whether and on what conditions Hong Kong should be

included among the beneficiaries of the Community GSP scheme.

Therefore, to seek to re-open the terms of an agreement formally recorded in the records of the enlargement conference, it would

need to be proved without any question of doubt that the Community GSP scheme for textiles (or footwear) has been modified since 1971

for other beneficiaries as regards the size of quotas and the

number of beneficiaries. In other words it would need to be

established that discrimination against Hong Kong in favour of its principal competitors among the developing countries had been

/intensified

CONFIDENTIAL