Mr G R Dickerson
Secretary General
Customs Co-operation Council Rue de l'Industrie 26-38 B 1040 Brussels Belgium
May 1987
APPLICATION OF THE HARMONISED SYSTEM CONVENTION TO HONG KONG
The possibility of the application of the HS Convention to Hong Kong has been under consideration both here and in Hong Kong, and several points have arisen on which I would appreciate your comments.
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Article 14 of the Convention allows & Contracting Party to extend the Convention to any territories for whose inter- national relations it is responsible, by means of a notification to the Secretary General. Article 4 allows any developing country Contracting Party to apply the HS at the 4 or 5 digit level for such period as may be necessary. It is envisaged that the UK may deposit an Article 14 notification on behalf of Hong Kong. However, Hong Kong intends at least initially to apply the HS at 4 digit level only, whilst the UK will clearly be applying the system in full.
Article 4 applies to developing country Contracting Parties only. Since Hong Kong will not be a Contracting Party in its own right, a strictly legalistic reading of the Convention suggests that it may not be entitled for that reason to apply the HS at 4 digit level. I am sure that was not the intention when the Convention was drawn up.
Accordingly we are considering indicating in an Article 14 notification that Hong Kong will apply the HS at 4 digit level by reference to the derogations allowed in Article 4 : I wonder whether you would foresee any problems in such an approach.
Hong Kong may wish to attend the HS Committee as part of the UK delegation. This situation already applies in other CCC Committees and I assume it would not cause problems for the Secretariat. If the Hong Kong representative wishes to speak the previously adopted general rule will apply, ie he or she wil preface their remarks by stating that they speak as "the United Kingdom on behalf of Hong Kong."
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No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.