TNAG-1363-FCO40-1809-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 199

Supplementary to Question No. 10 in the

Legislative Council on 7 August 1985

Mr.K.C. CHAN:- Sir, whilst appreciating the good service of the Customs

Service, I wish to know

(a)

whether random samples of imported beverages are taken

for fitness testing before they are sold and consumed by

the public;

(b) whether the 1,674 bottles of forfeited wine tally with

the total number of bottles imported and sold (that is,

are there still toxic wines floating around in Hong Kong

against which the public should not be off their guard?);

and finally,

(c)

from the customer protection point of view, who refunds

the public for toxic wines returned or forfeited?

-

Secretary for Trade and Industry:- Sir, it is not generally the practice of

the Customs and Excise Service to sample test all available alcoholic

beverages on the local market, but I can say that a number of other wines

have recently been tested including the German, Hungarian, and Rumanian wines.

As regards the question as to whether there are still unaccounted for bottles

of suspect Austrian wine, I can only say that the wine trade has been most

cooperative in their surrender of their stocks and I do not believe that

there should be large stocks unaccounted for. As regards this final question

of who is responsible for refunding the public, I would imagine that this is

a matter of law and anyone wishing to claim reimbursement of cost to him of

buying adulterated liquors will be at liberty to take to the law.