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Hong Kong and United States Customs officers will conduct a series of joint factory observation visits in Hong Kong from August 10.
The Head of Trade Controls of Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department, Mr Cheung Sai-yan, said today (July 25) the joint visits were part of the ongoing co-operation between the Customs authorities of Hong Kong and the US to facilitate legitimate textiles and clothing trade between the two places, as well as to combat illegal transhipment of textiles and clothing products.
"The joint visits will keep the US updated on the manufacture of textiles and clothing products in Hong Kong and the implementation of Hong Kong's origin control programme for textiles and clothing exports. This will facilitate a better understanding by the US Customs authorities of the effectiveness of Hong Kong's origin control system in ensuring that textiles and clothing exports claiming to be products of Hong Kong are genuinely manufactured in Hong Kong," Mr Cheung said.
"This will also be conducive to the legitimate textiles trade especially at a time when restrictive measures are still in place against certain textile exports from other economies in the region," he said.
The joint visit teams, comprising both Hong Kong and US Customs officers, will visit only those textile factories which have given prior consent.
"Joint visit team members will not undertake any enforcement activities during the visits. Enforcement activities, if necessary, will be undertaken by Hong Kong Customs officers independently and separately from the visits," Mr Cheung said.
As in previous rounds of joint visits, the visits will not disrupt the normal production and operation of the factories.
The visits, starting from August 10, will last for about two weeks. Detailed arrangements about the visits have been announced by the Trade and Industry Department separately through a Notice to Exporters and Certificate of Origin Circular.
Ends/Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Issued at HKT 11:36
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