TNAG-2752-FCO40-3967-Organisation-for-Economic-Co-operation-and-Development-(OECD-1994 — Page 87

E

PA OZCD

mr whitney

fi

270793A2:021/7

I Fletcher Esq ITP/la

DTI

27 July 1993

HKB 091/3

"D

RECE IN EGISTRY

O

0

1993

DESK CONLAR INDER

PA

REGISTRY Action Taken

Miss Bruch

11) PA

(62)

United Kingdom Delegation

to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

19 rue de Franqueville

75116 Paris

Telephone: 45 24 98 28 Facsimile: 45 24 98 37

Dear lan,

OECD/HONG KONG: POSSIBLE APPLICATION FOR OBSERVER STATUS ON THE TRADE COMMITTEE

Summary

1.

US and Netherlands will definitely support Hong Kong.

Detail

2. My letter of 5 July to Andrew Wong (Hong Kong Office Geneva) refers.

3.

On 13 July I hosted a small informal luncheon for Andrew Wong with trade colleagues here to discuss Hong Kong's possible application for observer status on the Trade Committee and the Trade Committee Working Party. The most positive signal came from the Netherlands (Lammersen) who were confident that they would support Hong Kong. Surprisingly, Japan (Ojimi) was the most quizzical, although the questions were good ones which are sure to come up in more formal discussion sooner or later. Germany (Goeke) was on the positive side of neutral but was probably unsighted.

4.

My US colleague (Hoover) was also non-committal at the time but subsequently told me privately that they would definitely support. Hong Kong.

Comment

5.

US support is good news indeed, not least since it means support from the American Trade Committee Chairman Feketekuty (and hence from the Trade Directorate). Nor should the importance of Dutch support be under-estimated given that their Trade Committee Representative, Wellenstein, is a Vice-Chairman. As for the Japanese I suspect that Ojimi was speaking off his own bat (as he tends to) and we should not therefore read too much into his apparent attitude; Joseph Wong has in any case lobbied the Japanese Ambassador (Sato) here already. I shall speak to the Germans again in due course to see if their thinking has developed.

6.

I had hoped to have one of the Scandinavians at lunch but none

/was