TNAG-1401-FCO40-1873-Future-of-Hong-Kong-continued-participation-in-the-General-A-1985 — Page 120

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bring her tariff into conformity with the 1950

schedule. We would however argue that neither the

other members of the GATT nor the Chinese Government

had at any time acted as if China was a contracting

party since Nationalist China formally withdrew from

the GATT in 1950 (certainly the Contracting Parties

have not acted as if there were a vacant seat:

unanimous decisions have been taken, and tariff

preferences enjoyed by Taiwan before 1950 have been

revoked by several CPs, including the UK, France and

the US); and that China has taken no steps to preserve

its position and could not simply take up the empty

seat without making a fresh application.

The Chinese

might find it politically difficult to abandon their

claim to the old Chinese seat but they might be

prepared to disarm opposition by offering some form of

assurance to trading partners in place of a negotiated

protocol (e.g. by offering to conclude degressive VRAS

in place of existing QRS). And the evidence is that

the Chinese accept the obligation to negotiate the

terms under which they would be allowed to resume

membership.

18. The Chinese have now been admitted by the GATT

Council as observers (without voting rights) to

meetings of the Council and its subordinate bodies.

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