Hong Kong, U.S. customs officers to visit HK textile factories together
Source: Xinhua Date: 2008-02-22
A joint team of customs officers from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the United States will visit textile factories in Hong Kong in March, the Hong Kong SAR Government said Tuesday.
The series of visits will start from March 6 and lasted for about two weeks, the Hong Kong SAR Government said in a press release.
"The joint visits are part of the on-going co-operation between the customs authorities of Hong Kong and the United States to facilitate legitimate textiles and clothing trade between the two places, as well as to combat illegal trans-shipment of textiles and clothing products," Cheung Sai-yan, head of trade controls of the Customs and Excise Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government, was quoted as saying.
Hong Kong, a special administrative region in south China and an independent economy, is one of the United States' major trading partners, and textile products constitute a remarkable portion of their trade.
Cheung said the visits was expected to keep the United States up-to-date on the manufacture of textiles and clothing products in Hong Kong and the implementation of Hong Kong's origin control program for textiles and clothing exports.
The visits will also facilitate understanding by the U.S. authorities of the effectiveness of Hong Kong's origin control system and help facilitate the legitimate trade "especially at a time when restrictive measures are still in place against certain textiles exports from other economies in the region," he said.
The joint teams will visit only textile factories with their prior consent and will not undertake any enforcement activities during the visits, Cheung said.
"Enforcement activities, if necessary, will be undertaken by Hong Kong Customs officers independently and separately from the visits," he was quoted as saying.
Cheung said the visits will not disrupt the normal production and operation of the factories, adding that detailed arrangements have been announced by the trade authorities separately through a notice to companies involved.
