ENG-1990 — Page 115

INDUSTRY AND TRADE

(seven per cent) as well as office machines and automatic data-processing equipment (seven per cent).

The direction and level of Hong Kong's export trade is much influenced by economic conditions and commercial policies in major overseas markets. In 1990, 50 per cent of all domestic exports went to the United States and the European Economic Community. The largest market was the United States ($66,370 million or 29 per cent of the total), China ($47,470 million or 21 per cent), Germany ($17,991 million or eight per cent) and the United Kingdom ($13,496 million or six per cent). Domestic exports to Japan and Singapore increased to $12,079 million and $7,796 million respectively. Other important markets were Taiwan, Canada, the Netherlands and France.

Re-exports

Re-exports showed a very significant increase in 1990, accounting for 65 per cent of the combined total of domestic exports and re-exports. Principal commodities re-exported were: textiles ($47,143 million); miscellaneous manufactured articles ($56,185 million); clothing ($47,822 million); electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances ($37,228 million); telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment ($36,366 million) as well as travel goods, handbags and similar containers ($15,202 million). The main origins of these re-exports were China, Japan, Taiwan, the United States and the Republic of Korea. Largest re-export markets were China, the United States, Japan, Germany and Taiwan.

Documentation of Imports and Exports

As a free port, Hong Kong keeps its import and export licensing requirements to a minimum. Products over a wide range do not need licences to enter or leave Hong Kong. Where licences are required, they are intended to achieve two main objectives. Firstly, they help Hong Kong to fulfil its international obligations to restrain exports of textiles products and, related to this, to monitor the flow of these products into Hong Kong. Thus there is a requirement for all imports and exports of such products to be covered by licences issued by the Director-General of Trade. Secondly, they help Hong Kong to control, on health, safety or security grounds, exports and imports of a few non-textiles products such as strategic commodities, reserved commodities, pharmaceuticals, agri- cultural pesticides and ozone-depleting substances.

In concert with other measures to curb smuggling by high-powered speedboats, the government enacted the Export (Television Sets and Video Cassette Recorders) Reg- ulations 1990 in June whereby the exports of television sets and video cassette recorders on a vessel of less than 250 tons net register are subject to export licensing control. In addition, export licensing control on a number of chemicals was introduced in February 1990 to prevent proliferation of chemical weapons.

Hong Kong maintains a certification of origin system which enables it to establish the origin of the goods which Hong Kong exports and to meet the requirements of the importing authorities. The Trade Department administers this system and issues certificates of origin where required. Other certificate-issuing organisations which have government approval are the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the Indian Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, the Chinese Manufacturers' Asso- ciation of Hong Kong and the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce.

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