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Following is a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Security, Mr John Lee, to a question by the Hon Wong Ting-kwong in the Legislative Council today (November 28):
Question:
As rare earth elements (REEs) are widely used in electronic products such as mobile phone batteries and flat-panel televisions, etc., they have been praised as the "gold of industries". The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has reportedly pointed out that, according to the statistics from the customs of overseas countries, the quantities of REEs imported from China from 2006 to 2008 were 35%, 59% and 36% respectively higher than the quantities exported based on the statistics from the customs of China; and the figure of last year from overseas customs was even 120% higher than that of China's customs. This reflects that the smuggling of REEs has been increasingly rampant, and the routes commonly taken are that REEs are smuggled to Hong Kong or Taiwan in containers, and then to countries such as Japan and Vietnam. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of cases of REEs smuggling detected by the Customs and Excise Department (and the percentage of such number in the total number of cases of smuggling), the quantity and value of the REEs involved (and the percentage of such value in the total value of all smuggling cases), and the number of persons involved in these cases, in each of the past three years;
(b) whether it has assessed if Hong Kong is a major transit point for REEs smuggling; if so, of the reasons for that; whether it has estimated the total quantity of REEs smuggled via Hong Kong last year; and
(c) whether the authorities have faced any difficulties in combating REEs smuggling activities and whether they have collaborated with the Mainland customs in this regard; if there are difficulties, of the details; if they have collaborated with the Mainland customs, of the details; if they have not collaborated, the reasons for that; and how they will step up efforts in combating such smuggling activities?
Reply:
President,
Having consulted the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau (CEDB), the Administration's response to the questions is as follow.
Under the Import and Export Ordinance (Cap.60), it is an offence to import or export any unmanifested cargo. In addition, Schedule 1 to the Import and Export (Strategic Commodities) Regulations (Cap.60G) specifies in detail the strategic commodities under control. Whether rare earth is subject to import and export control depends on whether its composition falls within the scope of Schedule 1 to Cap.60G.
In the past three years, the smuggling cases detected by the Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) do not involve any rare earth. So far, C&ED has not detected any case involving smuggling of rare earth from the Mainland to the overseas countries via Hong Kong. There is neither any evidence suggesting that Hong Kong is a major transit port for such smuggling. C&ED will continue to strictly enforce the Import and Export Ordinance (Cap.60), and maintain close liaison with relevant Mainland law enforcement agencies for intelligence exchange and joint monitoring and checks on suspicious items.
Ends/Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Issued at HKT 12:59
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