The Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Mr Timothy Tong Hin-ming, said in Brussels on June 25 that the challenge facing Customs is to ensure effective protection of citizens and their interests while also facilitating trade.
Commissioner Tong led a delegation to attend the World Customs Organization (WCO) 103/104 Council Sessions held in Brussels during June 24 to 26. The Council Sessions is an annual event for the Heads of 162 member Customs administrations from all over the world to meet, to receive progress reports on the studies of technical matters undertaken by the WCO and to exchange views on current issues facing Customs.
In the panel discussions on ??泅toms in the 21st Century?during the Council Sessions, presentations were given by the United States, European Union, Belgium, Argentina and Australia on Customs role in security matters.
In response to the US call for Customs' increasingly important role in security matters, Commissioner Tong said,??枸ryday some 6 000 TEUs leave Hong Kong destined for the US. Our experience in implementing the CSI is highly satisfactory. Since May 2003, referrals have been made between US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and Hong Kong Customs of over 400 containers for careful examination ?just slightly over one container a day. Not one single container was found to have contained terrorism-related products.?Commissioner Tong also said that there was a need to ensure ??〔 right balance between trade facilitation and effective enforcement? adding that ??㽣rorism-related security concerns are only part of effective enforcement and not the whole of it.?Commissioner Tong contended that Customs should not only ensure that trade would not be blocked by security measures, but that Customs must facilitate trade. He said, ??粳re is a rapidly growing regional demand for enhanced cross-boundary cargo movements in the region I come from.?Referring to the huge economic growth emanating from the Pan-Pearl River Delta adjacent to Hong Kong, he noted that daily production of goods from the Guangdong province alone amounts to US$385 million daily; and that production from the other eight provinces in the Pan-Pearl River Delta will multiply this amount. ???the moment, we have 27 000 container trucks and lorries crossing the boundary daily carrying much of the goods produced in the Pearl River Delta to the Hong Kong ports. These account for 78 per cent of the containers in Hong Kong. They will go from Hong Kong to the rest of the world,?he said.
Commissioner Tong pledged Hong Kong??support and readiness to directly take part in any initiative by the WCO to detect bombs, weed out counterfeit, seize drugs from our cargoes, and to ensure that due revenues are collected. ?撌另 we must also find ways and means to make cargo move faster,?he stressed.
Whilst in Brussels, Commissioner Tong also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Michel Danet, Secretary General of World Customs Organization (WCO), on the establishment of a WCO Regional Training Centre in Hong Kong. The arrangement will provide for the Hong Kong Customs Administration to make available classrooms and regular training facilities for use by WCO for the purposes of regional training, technical assistance meetings and other Customs-related events.
Before attending the WCO Council Sessions, Commissioner Tong and his delegation also visited the UK Customs for exchanging views on current issues and developments in both UK and Hong Kong Customs.
Ends/Sunday, June 27, 2004