The Vice Minister of Commerce An Min this (February 27) afternoon visited Lok Ma Chau Control Point at the invitation of the Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang.
Accompanied by Mr Tang, Mr An was greeted on arrival at Lok Ma Chau by the Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Mr Timothy Tong.
Mr Tong explained to Mr An how the Customs and Excise Department operated a comprehensive control system on trade in goods to ensure the smooth implementation of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA).
Mr An was pleased to note that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government was making every effort to ensure the integrity of the Arrangement, whilst facilitating its use by trade through speedy processing of eligible applications for zero tariff.
Mr Tang reassured Mr An that Hong Kong Customs would continue to work closely with the Mainland Customs to deter any abuses and facilitate Customs clearance of all goods eligible for zero tariff. Regular reviews would be conducted between the Hong Kong and Mainland Customs authorities.
During the visit, Mr An was briefed on the control system jointly operated by Hong Kong Customs and Trade and Industry Department covering certification, factory registration and inspection, consignment checks, costing checks, investigation, and blitz checks.
Commissioner Tong stressed that to deter origin misrepresentation, Hong Kong Customs has deployed manpower to conduct consignment checks to ascertain that the origin conferring processes of the goods covered by the application are carried out in the applicant's factory as declared.
Moreover, Hong Kong Customs will conduct costing checks on those goods the origins of which are determined in terms of costing criteria.
Apart from conducting in-depth investigations into suspected cases of origin misrepresentation detected in the course of consignment checks or costing checks, Hong Kong Customs carries out blitz checks at control points based on risk management.
During today's visit, Mr An was also briefed on Hong Kong Customs' streamlined procedures to enhance clearance efficiency, and its anti-smuggling endeavours at control points.
As at yesterday (February 26), 287 CEPA applications have been received since January 1, 2004. A total of 247 applications have been approved. The value of goods covered by approved CEPA applications amounted to $119 million.
Ends/Friday, February 27, 2004