Click into special report on Guangdong & CEPA

Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce An Min said Friday (Feb 28th) that with common efforts made by the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, customs clearance of all traded commodities between the two sides has been going smoothly since Jan. 1, 2004 when the Chinese mainland/Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) became effective.

An Min made the remarks while visiting Lok Ma Chau Control Point Friday, at the invitation of Hong Kong Financial Secretary Henry Tang.

Hong Kong Commissioner of Customs and Excise Timothy Tong explained to An Min how the Customs and Excise Department operated a comprehensive control system on trade in goods to ensure the smooth implementation of CEPA.

An was pleased to note that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government was making every effort to ensure the integrity of the Arrangement, while facilitating its use by trade through speedy processing of eligible applications for zero tariff.

Henry Tang reassured An that the Hong Kong Customs would continue to work closely with the Mainland Customs to deter any abuses and facilitate customs clearance of all goods eligible for zero tariff. Regular reviews would be conducted between the Hong Kong and Chinese mainland customs authorities.

During the visit, An was briefed on the control system jointly operated by the Hong Kong Customs and the Trade and Industry Department covering certification, factory registration and inspection, consignment checks, costing checks, investigation, and blitz checks.

Commissioner Tong stressed that to deter origin misrepresentation, the Hong Kong Customs has deployed manpower to conduct consignment checks to ascertain that the origin conferring processes of the goods covered by the application are carried out in the applicant's factory as declared.

Moreover, the Hong Kong Customs will conduct costing checks on those goods whose origins are determined in terms of costing criteria.

Apart from conducting in-depth investigations into suspected cases of origin misrepresentation detected in the course of consignment checks or costing checks, the Hong Kong Customs carries out blitz checks at control points based on risk management.

By Feb. 26, 287 CEPA applications had been received, with a total of 247 applications having been approved. The value of goods covered by approved CEPA applications amounted to 119 million HK dollars (15.31 million US dollars).

Editor: Wing