Issue
CONFIDENTIAL - 6
Objective/explanation
Secretary for Trade and Industry (Cont'd)
Present status/progress
China
interest
UK
interest
China's Resumption of GATT Contracting Party Status
it
commercial relations. will also assert Hong Kong's presence and legitimacy as a key player in the Asia Pacific region and as a separate economic entity both before and after 1997. Besides, given the potentially close link between PECC and APEC, Hong Kong's membership on PECC would lend a solid platform for joining APEC. China has already indicated in private that they saw no objection to Hong Kong joining PECC. The Standing Committee of PECC will review the whole question of membership in early May this year.
China is likely to insist on including in its Protocol of Resumption a reference to the territorial non-application of the Protocol's provisions to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. This might re-open doubts on HK's separate GATT contracting party status after 1997.
informed, as a matter of courtesy, of Hong Kong's move to join PECC.
Progress in the work of the Working Party has been stalled by the Tiananmen Square incident. The major players remain sceptical of China's economic reforms in the direction of a market economy and do not appear to be eager for
negotiations on the Protocol of Resumption.
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