ENG-2005 — Page 153

Commerce and Industry 119

its expertise and immense potential to develop into a world-class logistics and sourcing hub for textiles. At the same time, Hong Kong continues to maintain highly effective origin control measures to prevent abuse and to safeguard the interest of Hong Kong's textiles trade.

At the international level, Hong Kong, along with other WTO members and the International Textiles and Clothing Bureau (of which Hong Kong is a member), continues to monitor closely the global textiles trade to ensure that it is fully and truly liberalised, and that it comes under the same multilateral trading disciplines of the WTO as other sectors.

Hong Kong also cooperates with its trading partners to combat illegal transhipment of textiles. In 2005, Hong Kong Customs officers conducted another round of joint factory observation visit in conjunction with US Customs representatives to promote understanding of Hong Kong's anti-transhipment efforts. Such visits are not acts of law enforcement.

The Customs and Excise Department carried out 51 113 factory and consignment inspections and 1 016 investigations during the year to combat false declarations about the origin and value of goods and illegal transhipment of textiles. The department also conducted 1092 'blitz'

1 092 'blitz' check operations on textile consignments at various import and export control points. It successfully prosecuted 939 companies and individual offenders, resulting in the imposition of fines amounting to $18.5 million. It operates a monetary reward scheme to elicit information on textiles origin fraud.

Trade in Strategic Commodities

The Trade and Industry Department maintains a comprehensive import and export control licensing system to monitor the flows of strategic commodities through Hong Kong. The system ensures that while Hong Kong has access to advanced products and technologies to sustain its economic development, it is not used as a conduit for the illicit diversion of strategic commodities. The department also administers a permit system to monitor activities involving sensitive chemicals as required by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Hong Kong maintains close cooperation with its trading partners to keep abreast of 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.

In 2005, the Customs and Excise Department investigated 227 cases of unlicensed import and export of strategic commodities and prosecuted 33 offenders, resulting in fines amounting to $500,000. Goods valued at $140,000 were confiscated.

Customs Cooperation

Hong Kong Customs plays an active role in the work of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), which aims to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of customs administrations and facilitate trade by achieving harmony and uniformity of customs procedures among its members, and the Subcommittee on Customs