WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/L/333
8 November 1999
(99-4802)
Original:  English
COMMUNICATION FROM MACAU
The following communication, dated 27 October 1999, has been received from the
Government of Macau with the request that it be circulated to all Members and observers of the
World Trade Organization.
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The Government of Macau presents its compliments to the Director-General of the World
Trade Organization and is pleased to refer to the provisions of the General Agreements on Tariffs and
Trade and the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization.
The Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, on 14 January 1991,
distributed to GATT contracting parties a communication (L/6806) from Portugal, declaring that
Macau, being a separate customs territory, possessed full autonomy in the conduct of its external
commercial relations and of the other matters provid ed for in the General Agreement.  The Director-
General of the General Agreement then certified that, as the conditions required by Article XXVI:5(c)
of the General Agreement had been met, Macau had become a contracting party dated from
11 January 1991.
On the same date, the Director-General of the General Agreement circulated a communication
(L/6807) from the People's Republic of China, stating that in accordance with the Joint Declaration of
the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Portugal onthe question of Macau signed in Beijing on 13 April 1987, the People's Republic of China shall
resume the exercise of sovereignty over Macau as from 20 December 1999.  Macau would, from that
date, become a Special Administrative Region of China and as such it would, inter alia , maintain the
current social and economic systems and retain its economic and trade policies, on its own, using the
name of "Macau, China", maintain and develop relations, and conclude and implement agreements,with all States, regions and relevant internationa l organizations in the economic, trade and other
fields.  The People's Republic of China also stated that in pursuance with the relevant provisions of
Article 2 of and Annex I to the Joint Declaration, the Macau Special Administrative Region would
continue to participate in relevant international organizations and international trade agreements such
as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Macau became a contracting party of the General Agreement on 11 January 1991 and in the
light of Article XI of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization also
became a founding Member of the WTO since its establishment on 1 January 1995, and assumed all
of the corresponding rights and obligations through formal acceptance of the Final Act Embodyingthe Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, which was drawn up at
Marrakesh on 15 April 1994.
Bearing the aforesaid arrangements in mind, Macau will, on its own, continue to be a WTO
Member on and after 20 December 1999, using the name of "Macau, China".
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