TNAG-1259-FCO40-1599-The-Future-of-Hong-Kong---special-study-by-FCO--August-1982--1983 — Page 153

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The UK signs GATT Agreements on behalf of Hong Kong.

These include the MFA, although bilateral restraint

agreements under the MFA between Hong Kong and individual

importing countries are negotiated and signed by Hong

Kong in its own right.

8.

The PRC is not a Contracting Party to GATT. The

Nationalist Government signed a Protocol of Provisional

Application in 1948 but withdrew in 1950.

According to

the latest (1981) information, there is no immediate

нателен, Пие свидете

prospect of the PRC applying to join GATT, but their

But any

attitude may now become more positive: a request by the

PRC to attend the GATT Ministerial meeting in November

has been accepted by the Contracting Parties.

application to accede, or (rather less likely) an attempt

to 'reclaim the China seat', would be fraught with

The GATT is predicated on the assumption

difficulties.

that the Contracting Parties are market economies.

Special regimes have been imposed on those state traders

(Poland, Hungary, Romania) which have negotiated terms

for accession.

9. The PRC is not a signatory of the MFA either, but

it attended the most recent round of renewal negotiations

1982

(end-1981) as an observer. It has a bilateral restraint

agreement on textiles with the EC which is similar to, but

in some respects more restrictive than, EC agreements

with MFA signatory countries.

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