The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has taken a robust approach in defending Hong Kong's trade interest in response to anti-dumping actions against Hong Kong products, Secretary for Commerce, Industry & Technology John Tsang said here Tuesday.

Speaking at a luncheon jointly organized by the Textile Council and the Trade Development Council, Tsang said while the quantitative restrictions on textiles and clothing products have been eliminated since Jan. 1, the benefits of quota elimination are still clouded with uncertainties.

"Essentially, the outlook of the textiles trade is overcast by the existence of China-specific safeguard measures against products originated from the Mainland," Tsang said.

He added that there is a distinct possibility for importing economies to resort increasingly to other trade remedy measures, such as anti-dumping actions, because of their domestic political pressure.

"Up to now, a clear indication as to whether these measures would really become a new 'line of defense' has yet to emerge. However, given the significant implications they may have on trade flow, we have been closely monitoring developments," he said. 
To safeguard Hong Kong's legitimate interests, Tsang said the government has all along been adopting a robust approach in countering anti-dumping actions against Hong Kong products.

"We keep ourselves constantly on guard against possible and new anti-dumping cases, and keep our trade fully in the picture," he said.

Tsang added that the Hong Kong government also sees the need to tackle the root of the problem by improving the disciplines on anti-dumping under the WTO, through multilateral negotiations launched since late 2001 as part of the Doha Development Agenda.

"There are many ambiguities and gaps in the existing WTO Anti-dumping Agreement. It would be of paramount importance to clarify and improve the agreement to prevent misuse arising from abusive and arbitrary interpretation of the provisions," Tsang said.

He hoped that tighter and fairer rules can be introduced to better reflect the business reality nowadays and minimize abuse and misuse of anti-dumping.

Editor: Yan