The British Chamber of Commerce has questioned whether the proposed Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Hong Kong and China could do more harm than good.
In a document to the SAR Government obtained by the South China Morning Post, the chamber warns that an umbrella agreement such as the CEPA could serve as an administrative distraction from fixing the 'serious practical impediments to business' between Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta.
The five-page BritCham submission on CEPA stresses the value of negotiating a much more limited, targeted agreement which could render a 'fully fledged government-to-government CEPA' unnecessary.
'On the contrary, it could be argued that administrative time consumed by negotiating such an 'umbrella' agreement would actually crowd out the time needed to address such focused objectives, thus delaying progress in these materially pressing areas,' BritCham told the Government.
A more limited agreement could include the mutual recognition of property conveyancing and auditing services, it said. This would help Hong Kong people buying property in the Pearl River Delta and those small and medium enterprises in Hong Kong that must use separate auditors for their mainland operations.
BritCham is concerned international companies with a long presence in Hong Kong would be excluded from the definition of a 'Hong Kong company' for the purposes of the free-trade deal.