TNAG-1402-FCO40-1874-Future-of-Hong-Kong-continued-participation-in-the-General-A-1985 — Page 45

CONFIDENTIAL

15.

Article II(a)(ii) of the

Convention establishing a Customs

Cooperation Council provides for membership of the Council by:

16.

"the

which i s

of government

customs separate any

territory proposed by a Contracting Party having responsibility for the formal conduct of its diplomatic relations, which is autonomous in the conduct of its external commercial relations and whose admission as a separate member is approved by the Council".

The

in

its

British side thus

that propose

to parallel

declaration to the GATT, under GATT Article XXVI (5)(c), the United Kingdom should, at the same time, make a parallel declaration under Article I I (a)(ii) of the convention, sponsoring Hong Kong's

membership of the Council. The British side further propose that:

(i)

(ii)

17.

for

For

similar reasons

to those given in paragraphs 8 and 9 above in the context of the GATT, it would be appropriate if

both Hong Kong and the Government of the PRC were to submit their own separate statements to the Secretary General of the

CCC;

The Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the PRC should together take whatever steps they consider favourably upon the Council looks

necessary

to

ensure that

and subsequently approves separate membership for Hong Kong.

Appendix 2 to this paper contains the British side's proposals the three kinds of declaration which, under the Article II(a)(ii) procedure, could be submitted to the Secretary General of

the CCC.

CONFIDENTIAL

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