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See (43
A J Pryor Esq
CONFIDENTIAL
HACK 175/2
RELIVED
INDEX
По
6 APR 1979
No 176.4
Shipping Policy Division Department of Trade
1 Victoria Street SW1
f
24
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
10.
HY
London SW1A 2AH
X i
my suggested addition, slightly writered down (with
April 1979
Mr
из
agreement)
1414
травний Mr warianten Jb.4
M.
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PROPOSED UK/CHINA MARITIME AGREEMENT
As I mentioned to you last week on the telephone, it would be most helpful to the FCO if the DOT were able to produce a clear statement of benefits which UK shipowners are likely to derive from a Maritime Agreement and the disadvantages if no agreement is concluded. On the question of Hong Kong interests, there has been a good deal of discus- sion over the months between the FCO and the DOT about the questions you raised in paragraph 8 of your letter of 7 August 1978 to Richard Samuel and you have seen all the comments from Peking and Hong Kong including Hong Kong telegram No 406 of 21 March which gives the latest assessment from Hong Kong on how the Hong Kong interests would be affected by a Maritime Agreement which excluded Hong Kong. You have also had Richard Samuel's interim reply of 2 February setting out the basis for the agreed policy which we have been pursuing since the idea of covering some aspects of shipping under the ECA became a possibility.
2.
Please let us know if you have any supplementary questions. You also asked in paragraph 8 of that letter to what extent the FCO would wish to make it a sine qua non of concluding an agreement that some sort of assurance about the treatment of Hong Kong could be obtained. It is difficult to answer this hypothetical question particularly as we have only recently sought Peking's views on how we might make progress.
We are
now all agreed that our objective should be a Maritime Agreement covering Hong Kong. If we reached the point where we had to choose between a metropolitan agreement and no agreement at all,
CONFIDENTIAL
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