HONG KONG: The Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Mr Roy Tang, and the Minister of the General Administration of Customs, Mr Yu Guangzhou, signed a Co-operation Arrangement on Origin of Transhipment Cargo in Hong Kong under Free Trade Agreements at the Review Meeting between Hong Kong Customs and the General Administration of Customs held in Hong Kong today (May 24).
To strengthen Hong Kong’s role as an international trade and logistics hub as well as to encourage the trade to choose Hong Kong as a transhipment location for their goods, the Mainland and Hong Kong Customs signed the Co-operation Arrangement to further enable Mainland-bound consignments passing through Hong Kong to enjoy tariff reduction of the Mainland. The Co-operation Arrangement covers goods traded between the Mainland and its trading partners, including 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), Australia, Bangladesh, Chile, Costa Rica, Iceland, India, Korea, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Taiwan.
Hong Kong Customs has rolled out the Free Trade Agreement Transhipment Facilitation Scheme (FTA Scheme) since December 20, 2015, to provide supervision service and issue a certificate of non-manipulation to enable traders to claim tariff reduction from the Customs authorities at the importing end. As at April 30, 2016, Hong Kong Customs had received 1 120 applications with a total value of goods exceeding US$88 million and estimated tariff reduction of over US$5.1 million.
The FTA Scheme allows goods passing through Hong Kong to enjoy tariff reduction, strengthens Hong Kong’s status as a logistics hub in the region, and enhances the development of local trade, commerce and logistics sectors under the Belt and Road Initiative.
The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau and Hong Kong Customs are committed to facilitating global trade and will continue to take an active role in the development of trade facilitation measures with other Customs administrations in benefiting both local and overseas businesses.
