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The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government welcomes the United States President's decision to renew China's Normal Trade Relations (NTR) status (formerly known as Most Favoured Nation status) for another year without conditions attached.

"President Clinton's decision to renew the Mainland's NTR trading status is good news for Hong Kong. The decision is conducive to boosting our business confidence," a Government spokesman said today (Friday).

"The United States and the Mainland are Hong Kong's two largest trading partners and good relations between them are of vital importance to Hong Kong as a trading, financial and investment centre.

"NTR is the normal basis for conducting trade between economies. We hope that this decision will strengthen the bilateral relationship between our two largest trading partners," he said.

End/Friday, June 4, 1999

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