"In accordance with the Joint
Declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of China and the
Government of the Republic of Portugal on the Question of Macao signed on 13
April 1987, the Government of the People's Republic of China will resume the
exercise of sovereignty over Macao with effect from 20 December 1999. Macao
will, with effect from that date, become a Special Administrative Region of the
People's Republic of China and will enjoy a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign
and defence affairs which are the responsibilities of the Central People's
Government of the People's Republic of China.
In this connection, I am instructed by the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China to inform Your
Excellency of the following:
Convention concerning the Marking of the
Weight on Heavy Packages Transported by Vessels (No. 27), 1929, (hereinafter
referred to as the "Convention"), to which the Government of the
People's Republic of China acceded on 11 July 1984, will apply to the Macao
Special Administrative Region with effect from 20 December 1999.
The Government of the People's Republic of
China will assume the responsibility for the international rights and
obligations arising from the application of the Convention to the Macao Special
Administrative Region."
Convention concerning the Marking of the Weight on Heavy Packages
Transported by Vessels
(ILO No. 27)
(Adopted at Geneva on 21 June 1929)
The General
Conference of the International Labour Organisation,
Having been
convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office,
and having met in its Twelfth Session on 30 May 1929, and
Having decided upon
the adoption of certain proposals with regard to the marking of the weight on
heavy packages transported by vessels, which is included in the first item of
the agenda of the Session, and
Having determined
that these proposals shall take the form of an international Convention,
adopts this
twenty-first day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine
the following Convention, which may be cited as the Marking of Weight (Packages
Transported by Vessels) Convention, 1929, for ratification by the Members of
the International Labour Organisation in accordance with the provisions of the
Constitution of the International Labour Organisation:
Article 1
1. Any package or
object of one thousand kilograms (one metric ton) or more gross weight
consigned within the territory of any Member which ratifies this Convention for
transport by sea or inland waterway shall have its gross weight plainly and
durably marked upon it on the outside before it is loaded on a ship or vessel.
2. In exceptional
cases where it is difficult to determine the exact weight, national laws or
regulations may allow an approximate weight to be marked.
3. The obligation
to see that this requirement is observed shall rest solely upon the Government
of the country from which the package or object is consigned and not on the
Government of a country through which it passes on the way to its destination.
4. It shall be left
to national laws or regulations to determine whether the obligation for having
the weight marked as aforesaid shall fall on the consignor or on some other
person or body.
Article 2
The formal
ratifications of this Convention under the conditions set forth in the
Constitution of the International Labour Organisation shall be communicated to
the Director-General of the International Labour Office for Registration.
Article 3
1. This Convention shall
be binding only upon those Members whose ratifications have been registered
with the International Labour Office.
2. It shall come
into force twelve months after the date on which the ratifications of two
Members of the International Labour Organisation have been registered with the
Director-General.
3. Thereafter, this
Convention shall come into force for any Member twelve months after the date on
which its ratification has been registered.
Article 4
As soon as the
ratifications of two Members of the International Labour Organisation have been
registered with the International Labour Office, the Director-General of the
International Labour Office shall so notify all the Members of the
International Labour Organisation. He shall likewise notify them of the
registration of ratifications which may be communicated subsequently by other
Members of the Organisation.
Article 5
1. A Member which
has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the expiration of ten years
from the date on which the Convention first comes into force, by an act
communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for
registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until one year after the
date on which it is registered with the International Labour Office.
2. Each Member
which has ratified this Convention and which does not, within the year
following the expiration of the period of ten years mentioned in the preceding
paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for in this Article,
will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter, may denounce
this Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years under the terms
provided for in this Article.
Article 6
At such times as it
may consider necessary the Governing Body of the International Labour Office
shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this
Convention and shall examine the desirability of placing on the agenda of the
Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.
Article 7
1. Should the
Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention in whole or in part,
the ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention shall ipso jure
involve denunciation of this Convention without any requirement of delay,
notwithstanding the provisions of Article 5 above, if and when the new revising
Convention shall have come into force.
2. As from the date
of the coming into force of the new revising Convention, the present Convention
shall cease to be open to ratification by the Members.
3. Nevertheless,
this Convention shall remain in force in its actual form and content for those
Members which have ratified it but have not ratified the revising convention.
Article 8
The French and
English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.