HK/US Customs joint factory observation visits to start on November 7

31 Oct 2005

Hong Kong and the United States Customs officers will conduct a series of joint factory observation visits in Hong Kong starting from November 7.

The Head of Trade Controls of the Customs and Excise Department, Mr Raymond Wong Yum-man, said today (October 31), "The joint visits are part of the ongoing cooperation between the Customs authorities of Hong Kong and the US to facilitate legitimate textiles and clothing trade between the two regions, as well as to combat illegal transhipment of textiles and clothing products."

"The joint visits will keep the US up-to-date on the manufacture of textiles and clothing products in Hong Kong and the implementation of Hong Kong's origin control programme for textiles and clothing exports. This will facilitate a better understanding of the US Customs authorities of the effectiveness of Hong Kong's origin control system in ensuring that textiles and clothing exports claiming to be products of Hong Kong are genuinely manufactured in the territory," Mr Wong said.

"This will also be conducive to greater facilitation for the legitimate textiles trade especially at a time when restrictive measures are still in place against certain textiles exports from other economies in the region," he added.

The joint visit teams, comprising both Hong Kong and US Customs officers, will visit only those textile factories which have given prior consent.

"Joint visit team members will not undertake any enforcement activities during the visits. If necessary, any enforcement activities will be undertaken by Hong Kong Customs officers independently and separately from the visits," Mr Wong remarked.

As in the previous 14 rounds of joint visits since 1996, the visits will not disrupt the normal production and operation of the factories.

The visits, starting from November 7, will last for about two weeks. Detailed arrangements about the visits have been announced by the Trade and Industry Department separately through a Notice to Exporters cum Certificate of Origin Circular.

Monday, October 31, 2005

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