TNAG-1852-FCO40-2627-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 36

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

It

submit

Taiwan's Application for the Membership of GATT ( November 20, 1989)

about

to

Agreement

is reported that the Taiwan Authorities are

their application for accession to the General

Tariffs and Trade. Since Britain is a contracting party to GATT, I am instructed hereby to express the concern and to state

the position of the Chinese Government on this issue to your

on

Government.

The Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole

legal government of China. Taiwan, as a province of China, has

no right to accede to GATT on its own, and GATT should not accept

the so-called accession application of the Taiwan authorities

for consideration.

Firstly, as is known to all, China is one of the original

contracting parties to GATT. The Government of the People's

Republic of China is the sole legal government

Of China, and

Taiwan is part of Chinese territory. This has been affirmed by

the United Nations and its various organs, including GATT. Thus,

at the session held in 1971, the GATT contracting parties decided

to remove the Taiwan Authorities from their observer status in

GATT in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758.

according to the principles of international law as

well as the provisions of GATT and relevant international

practices, no non-sovereign entity belonging to a state has the

right to conclude international agreements on its own unless it

is permitted or authorised to do so by the central government of

the sovereign state concerned . Thirdly, as stated before, China

Secondly,

is

an original contracting party to GATT.

Since the Government

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