TNAG-1957-FCO40-2786-Hong-Kong-Animals-and-Plants-(Protection-of-Endangered-Speci-1989 — Page 127

CONFIDENTIAL

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

DSR 11C (Revised 5/87)

time for the traders to dispose of their existing stocks

and for a retraining scheme for ivory craftsmen to be

implemented.

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Secret

Confidential

Restricted

Unclassified

PRIVACY MARKING

In Confidence

Moreover,

4. I very much doubt whether the idea of establishing an

international buy out fund is really practicable.

Although it could be argued that all the major CITES

parties have an interest in preventing the trade from

going underground, there is no provision in the

Convention for international compensation.

nearly all the major CITES parties, including the United

States and our EC partners are ivory consumers rather

than traders. With the exception of Portugal (which

abstained on behalf of Macau), their delegates at the

CITES Conference all rejected Hong Kong's argument for

continued trade in legally held existing stocks. Given

the mood at the CITES Conference, there is not reason to

suppose that these countries would now be willing to

contribute to a fund to compensate Hong Kong's ivory

Furthermore, the only other CITES parties

traders.

involved in the ivory trade Japan, Burundi, the United

Arab Emirates and Macau hold much smalier stock piles

-

than Hong Kong and would therefore have no interest in

supporting the establishment of an international fund

primarily for Hong Kong's benefit.

5.

While the idea of an international fund is probably

impracticable, I believe that we have no option but to

agree to enter a short-term reservation on Hong Kong's

My reasons for coming to this conclusion are as

behalf.