TNAG-0858-FCO40-1068-Proposed-UK-China-bilateral-shipping-agreement-1979 — Page 63

5

The second deletion would cause problems for us in that some of our shipowners have experienced difficulties in obtaining spare parts etc in Chinese ports. They therefore need to have the assurance of MFN treatment in respect of the importation of spare gear etc. The substitution of the word 'furnishing' by the word 'importation', as we indeed suggested in the earlier negotiations, would meet this

concern.

13. We do not ourselves have any amendments to propose to Article 4. Our owners have however experienced difficulties from the Chinese refusal to allow them to use the most modern navigational aids and we have indeed complained about this (our letter of August 1978 to which we have not yet had a substantive reply). It might be

useful to take the opportunity of a resumed negotiation to seek Chinese acceptance of the proposition that the reference to 'use of harbour equipment and navigation aid equipment' in Article 4 (lines 11 and 12) enables our vessels to use the most modern equipment. If this were not accepted, we should need to table an amendment to the text which clearly provides for this. (Alternatively it might be better not to raise this in the negotiations but to allow the proble to arise naturally and raise it then in relation to the Agreement).

There are three other parts of the Agreement we have considered

changing:

14.

(a) In view of Chinese refusal in the past to give priority of

despatch to our liners we might aim for a priority of

despatch clause under Article 5.

(b) A technical cooperation clause might be inserted in

Article 17.

(c) We had earlier come to the view that the wording of our

original text was insufficient as a commitment to real and effective cargo-sharing. Subsequently the Economic Cooper ation Agreement emerged and seemed a more appropriate route for an understanding. We would therefore propose to delete the second sentence of paragraph (1) of Article 17 and replace the words 'the above matters' in the first lin of paragraph (2) by 'the matters discussed'.