§5713 Commerce between United States and Hong Kong

Summary

The United States should keep strong trade and economic ties with Hong Kong after June 30, 1997. The U.S. must treat Hong Kong as a separate territory for trade rules, like import limits and documents that show where goods were made. The U.S. should deal directly with Hong Kong on trade deals and treat Hong Kong as independent from the United Kingdom and, after June 30, 1997, from the People’s Republic of China for economic matters. Hong Kong products should get fair treatment under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and the U.S. should accept origin papers from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The U.S. should allow the U.S. dollar and the Hong Kong dollar to be freely exchanged. American companies should be encouraged to do business in Hong Kong under the law. The U.S. should support Hong Kong’s access to sensitive COCOM-controlled technologies if those technologies are kept safe from misuse or illegal export. The U.S. should press Hong Kong to protect intellectual property, work to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty with Hong Kong while consulting China, and respect that any change in sovereignty will not change property ownership in the United States by people from Hong Kong.