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and handed over to the Chinese side. On the British side we were well advanced in the various programmes. As the Governor said in
in his address, if progress in the JLG did not speed up significantly, there would be a high risk that work would not be finished before 1997 and there would then be a legal vacuum.
(A) Bilateral Acreements
8.
On investment promotion : and protection, we had initialled nine agreements of which the Chinese side had agreed to six.
Two of that six had been signed, and further negotiations were being made
made with three Governments. It had also been suggested to the Chinese side that a further five agreements needed to be negotiated
9.
On extradition, four agreements had been initialled of which the Chinese side had agreed three. Two agreements had been signed. Negotiations were in progress for a further five. It had also been suggested to
to the Chinese
Chinese side that
side that another eight agreements needed to be negotiated.
10.
On air service agreements, 11 had been signed, five had been initialled and were with the Chinese side for approval and negotiation were in progress for a further five. A number of other negotiations had also been proposed.
11.
A similiar negotiating programme had also been proposed to the Chinese side on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters; reciprocal enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters; visa abolition agreements. A number of other legal or quasi-legal areas had been covered in our proposals to the Chinese side.
12.
The Hong Kong Government had no knowledge of what bilateral treaties china might be negotiating. But they would only apply to the Hong Kong SAR in accordance with the circumstances and needs of the SAR and after seeking views of the HKSAR government as provided in JD 137.
(B) Multilateral International Agreements
13.
About 200 multilateral agreements had been extended by Britain to Hong Kong over the years, about 100 of which had so far been agreed, in principle, for continued application after 1997. China was party to some of these 100 agreements. Without Chinese agreement on the treaties to which China was not a party, those would lapse in 1997.
14.
to
China was a party
less than half of the total multilateral treaties. These treaties would continue to apply to the HKSAR automatically by operation of law. Both China and Britain had made reservations to some of the treaties
treaties which would affect the way
in which the treaties applied to the territority. The JLG was looking at the question whether Chinese reservations would be acceptable to the HKSAR, and for confirmation that the reservations made by Britain would
continue after 1997.
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