TNAG-1306-FCO40-1663-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1984 — Page 53

SECRET

Mr. Minis

MKKOSOLL

RECEIVED IN RL DISTRY

7 PES 1984

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ague with this summary of.

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the conclusions

DISE OFFICER

Sir I Sinclai

Sinclair

cc: Mr Burrows, Legal Advisers.

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Mr Hum

Sir E Youde, Hong Kong

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FUTURE OF HONG KONG: POSSIBLE WAYS OF DEALING WITH TREATIES AT PRESENT APPLYING TO HONG KONG

1.

At your meeting with Sir E Youde yesterday the Governor put strongly his view that:

(a) it would be inappropriate to put in a working paper to the

Chinese on this subject;

(b)

2.

a Joint Commission was probably not the way to handle the question because the treaties covered a variety of subjects and would need individual expert examination.

Sir E Youde accepted nevertheless that we had to reach agreement with the Chinese that the subject would require study at an appropriate time. This would probably mean that we should include in an overall agreement a reference to this point.

3.

It was agreed that we should shelve the idea of a working paper;

bear the subject in mind for inclusion in a draft agreement, probably with a reference to the setting up of a jointly agreed mechanism for dealing with the problem; and meanwhile pursuing the examination of the existing treaties applying to Hong Kong on the following lines:

(a) Hong Kong will provide us with a complete list of treaties

and mark them so far as possible in order of importance to Hong Kong;

(b)

(c)

(d)

Research Department and NTD should be asked to identify those treaties to which thePRC was already a party;

We should agree with Hong Kong on which treaties called for special and early treatment, including possibly a special mention in the overall agreement. This already applied to the GATT, and could be relevant in the case of Civil Aviation and other areas;

7

We should agree with Hong Kong on those cases in which it would be helpful for us to make an approach to third countries in order to get their cooperation where we wanted to achieve the continuing application of a particular agreement to Hong Kong,

Вир

18 January 1984

SECRET

R D Clift

Hong Kong Department