TNAG-2893-FCO40-4166-Hong-Kong-localisation-of-laws-merchant-shipping-and-carria-1993 — Page 15

Ms Barrett

Legal Advisers

COVERING CONFIDENTIAL

370/24 RECEIVED I

8 SEP 1993

(14

par 370/24 ра

HONG KONG: LOCALISATION OF LAWS: MERCHANT SHIPPING: CARRIAGE of GOODS BY SEA

1.

13

Hong Kong telno 1454 raises again the complex question of whether the Brussels Convention of 1924 and the two Protocols of 1968 and 1979 apply to Hong Kong.

2.

You confirmed in your minute of 12 August that the UK denounced the Brussels Convention in respect of Hong Kong in 1984. Unfortunately I slipped up when drafting our telno 755 and wrongly implied that this also meant that the Protocols no longer applied. Hong Kong have picked up on this mistake.

3

However, Hong Kong have also now looked again at the

Protocols and have realised (their para 1) that Article 7 of the 1968 Protocol preserves the amended Convention in the event of the original Convention being denounced. The situation therefore seems to be that the Brussels Convention as amended by the 1968 and 1979 Protocols does apply to Hong Kong.

4. If the above is correct, then Hong Kong are proposing to make the necessary drafting changes to the localisation paper on Carriage of Goods by Sea, and to correct the earlier IRO sub-group paper (as you suggested in your minute of 12 August). These changes seem to be straightforward.

5. I would be grateful for your comments on Hong Kong's reading of their status with regard to the Convention, if possible by 24 September.

Grabber Mastell

J N Marshall

Hong Kong Department

WH305 270-3287

14 September 1993

COVERING CONFIDENTIAL

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