BACKGROUND
CONFIDENTIAL
Air Services Agreements (ASAS)
1. Arrangements for scheduled air services between Hong
Kong and most countries are presently regulated by UK Air Services Agreements (ASAs). Air services to Hong Kong cannot of course be covered in this way after 1997 and, with
Chinese consent, we are separating all those UK ASAs which
provide for routes to Hong Kong into two sets of arrangements: one between the UK and third countries and one between Hong Kong and third countries (Hong Kong ASAs) which
can continue in force beyond 1997. To ensure this, we show
the initialled texts to the Chinese before signature.
2. Due to delays on the Chinese side in clearing the texts,
the separation process has ground to a halt. The Chinese
are currently sitting on seven draft ASAs (New Zealand, Brazil, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Germany and Italy): the Hong Kong/New Zealand text was passed to them eighteen months ago. We are continuing to negotiate separated ASAS with third countries (the Hong kong/Italy text was very
recently initialled, and passed to the Chinese last week), so this backlog is likely to continue. Hong Kong will also
need to negotiate new (as opposed to separated) ASAS as commercial developments require. They will shortly be opening negotiations, for example, with three Scandinavian
countries.
3.
CAAC, the Chinese airline, is behind these delays. They
are obstructing the separation process (to which they have
always been opposed) in the hope of obtaining commercial
advantage in 1997. We have remonstrated with the Chinese on
many occasions through the JLG and in other senior bilateral contacts. Lord Caithness emphasised our concern during his meeting with Guo Fengmin at JLG XVI, and the Secretary of
CAMAEE/1
CONFIDENTIAL
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