TNAG-1491-FCO40-2049-Future-of-Hong-Kong-General-Agreement-on-Tariffs-and-Trade-(-1986 — Page 86

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under the GATT if the United Kingdom imposed a discriminatory quota

against imports from Hong Kong.

4.

Third Contracting Parties are in principle entitled under Article I to the trade advantages exchanged between the

United Kingdom and Hong Kong

This follows from Article XXIV:1, 2nd sentence, which states that "... such customs territory shall be treated as though it were a contracting party" and from Article I:2(a) which exempts from the obligation of Article I:1 those preferences that were in

force between contracting parties and the customs territories listed in Annex A (including the dependent territories of United Kingdom). The exemption in paragraph 2 of Article I would not be necessary if advantages accorded to dependent territories were not covered by Article I.

5.

Hong Kong cannot independently represent its interests

in the GATT

the

This follows from Article XXIV:1, 2nd sentence, according

to which customs territories are treated as contracting parties "exclusively for the purposes of the territorial application of the General Agreement", and thus not for purposes of representation. The Havana Charter permitted the separate representation of ITO members and dependent territories in commodity conferences (Article

69).

There is no comparable provision in the GATT.

F. Roessler

30 January 1986