TNAG-1402-FCO40-1874-Future-of-Hong-Kong-continued-participation-in-the-General-A-1985 — Page 64

CONFIDENTIAL

UK INTEREST:

(vi) If only for Hong Kong reasons, it would be

impossible for Britain to oppose Chinese accession as a matter of principle

(vii) If satisfactory special terms can be

negotiated, the UK can align itself with the majority who would then be likely to favour Chinese membership.

NEXT STEPS:

(viii) We need to know a lot more about the

attitudes of EC partners, of other free world economies and of regional countries before taking a firm decision on how active we should be on the matter. We should now set about finding

this out.

(ix)

In doing so we should canvass the view that it will be necessary if China applies, to insist on discretionary provisions (on the lines of paragraphs 19-21 above) to prevent disruptive surges in Chinese exports from damaging sensitive sectors of Community industry and effectively prevent China's state- trading status from undermining the functioning of the GATT system.