CONFIDENTIA
maeaven,
In accordance wat Annes II to The Agreement, the mechanics eneuring tone komp's consining partiupation in The GATT is a motion for careideration by The Sino- British Joint Liaison group (JLG) to be established when The Agreemer enters into forcel possably in May).
me shall be seeking Chinese support in The JLG for
DSR 11C
6. We must frankly face the fact that a formal Chinese
application to join is inevitable. Their observer status
is the first step towards eventual membership, and while
the Chinese have made clear that they do not intend to
rush, they will certainly want to move ahead with all
practicable speed. As you acknowledge, she could not,
even in the face of Western opposition, ultimately be
prevented. Should we then be lobbying, however
discreetly, in favour of an already bost cause?
Even if
such lobbying was recieved sympathetically by other EC
Member States (which is not wholly clear), EC opposition
to Chinese membership would be public, and UK complicity
in this would inevitably become known. The political
We need a consequences of this would be serious.
background of harmonious UK/China relations if we are to
ensure the smooth implementation of the agreement on
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Hong Kong's future, including our aim of securing
contracting party status for Hong Kong within the GATT before 1997 Notwithstanding the lack of a substantive
link between Chinese accession to, and Hong Kong's
continuing participation in, the GATT,Any action on our part, howver inconspicuous, to head off a Chinese application for GATT memberhip, would put all this at
risk.
These arguments, which are not addressed in your paper, explain our references to the essential importance
of no blame attaching to Britain, in the event of an
unsuccessful Chinese application to join the GATT, and of
letting others make the running in
provisions for Chinese accession.
insisting on tough
For these reasons, we
continue to think that action to mitigate the economic
CONFIDENTIAL
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