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Finally, the Administration urges honourable members to deal with the Bill expeditiously. We will be working closely together with the Sub-committee established to examine this Bill; indeed the Sub-committee has already begun its work this morning. I hope it will come to a conclusion speedily.
Thank you Mr President.
End
Consumer Goods Safety (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill
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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Trade and Industry, Miss Denise Yue, in moving the Consumer Goods Safety (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1996 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the Consumer Goods Safety (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1996 be read the second time.
The purpose of the Bill is to enhance consumer protection by requiring all consumer goods covered by the Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance to have all safety markings or labels provided in both English and Chinese, i.e. the bilingual safety labelling requirement. It seeks to do so by empowering the Secretary for Trade and Industry to establish safety standards or safety specifications which she believes will materially enhance the safety of consumer goods. The proposed bilingual safety labelling requirement may then be established by regulation made by the Secretary for Trade and Industry under the new provision. It will be enforced by the Commissioner of Customs and Excise.
The Bill is proposed in response to requests from the community for the imposition of mandatory product labelling requirement in Chinese for all consumer goods, regardless of what the original language of the labelling is.
Having carefully considered the requests. we agree that safety labelling in Chinese, which is a language widely understood by the community, is of paramount importance to ensure consumer safety. We also see the need to ensure that the English-speaking only community in Hong Kong understands the safety labelling on consumer goods. We therefore propose that all safety markings or labels on consumer goods covered by the Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance must be expressed in both English and Chinese.