The Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Mr Hermes Tang, led a delegation to attend the 2018 review meeting between the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China (GACC) and Hong Kong Customs in Beijing today (November 28). Mr Tang and the Vice Minister of the GACC, Mr Li Guo, presided at the meeting.
The meeting reviewed the implementation of the 2016-2018 Co-operation Plan between the two customs administrations for the past two years. Both sides also recognised the remarkable achievements made on customs clearance facilitation, anti-smuggling, intelligence exchange, development of new boundary control points and staff training.
The two administrations also reached consensus on the 2019-2020 Co-operation Plan. Both sides will strengthen co-operation on the areas of information exchange, mutual recognition of regulations and mutual assistance in law enforcement, and support the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in order to make greater contributions to the economic development of both places. The salient points of the Co-operation Plan are:
(1) to further enhance business exchanges between both administrations;
(2) to continue taking forward various facilitation measures in order to increase customs clearance efficiency;
(3) to enhance collaboration on information technology;
(4) to strengthen enforcement co-operation to combat cross-boundary smuggling and drug trafficking activities;
(5) to increase dialogue and study over the Rules of Origin under the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement;
(6) to continue carrying out the work relating to the Authorized Economic Operator Programmes of both places with a view to providing more facilitation to the enterprises;
(7) to strengthen customs co-ordination for operations of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge;
(8) to enhance product safety co-operation;
(9) to increase co-operation on international customs affairs; and
(10) to continue arranging training programmes for each other.
Ends/Wednesday, November 28, 2018
