ENG-2003 — Page 158

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

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Kong, China was the Chairman from January 1999 until September 2002), Hong Kong and a group of developing country exporters of textiles have been working together to ensure that the liberalisation process under the ATC is on course and to explore possibilities for further liberalisation.

Hong Kong continues to cooperate with its trading partners in combating illegal transhipment of textiles. Among other things, to promote understanding of Hong Kong's anti-transhipment efforts, Hong Kong Customs officers conduct joint factory observation visits in conjunction with US Customs representatives. Such visits are not acts of law enforcement. In 2003, one round of a joint factory observation visit was conducted.

To combat false declarations of origin and values of goods and illegal transhipment of textiles, the Customs and Excise Department in 2003 carried out 96 063 factory and consignment inspections and 1284 investigations. The department also. conducted 976 'blitz' check operations on textile consignments at various import and export control points. It successfully prosecuted 820 offenders, resulting in the imposition of fines amounting to $18.87 million. It operates a monetary reward scheme to elicit information on textiles origin fraud.

Trade in Strategic Commodities

To ensure that Hong Kong has continued access to advanced products and technologies to sustain its economic development and that Hong Kong will not be used as a conduit for illicit diversion of strategic commodities, the Government maintains a comprehensive import and export control system to monitor the flows of strategic commodities through Hong Kong. The licensing control system for strategic commodities is administered by the Trade and Industry Department with the support of vigorous enforcement action by the Customs and Excise Department. Hong Kong maintains close cooperation with its trading partners to keep itself abreast of the developments in the international arena on strategic trade control matters, and to make sure that its control arrangement is complementary to those of its trading partners.

The Chemical Weapons (Convention) Ordinance, which was passed by the Legislative Council in July, enables the Government to fully implement the Chemical Weapons Convention in Hong Kong. It underlines Hong Kong's commitment to internationally agreed arrangements on the ban of chemical weapons and on the monitoring of activities involving sensitive chemicals. It also helps enhance Hong Kong's international reputation in the area of strategic trade control, and helps ensure its continued access to a full range of chemicals needed for local industrial, medical, research and trading purposes.

In 2003, the Customs and Excise Department investigated 251 cases of unlicensed import and export of strategic commodities and prosecuted 51 offenders, resulting in fines amounting to $2.28 million. Goods valued at $2.78 million were seized and confiscated.

Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements

Hong Kong has bilateral investment promotion and protection agreements with 14 economies: Australia, Austria, Belgium/Luxembourg, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland