HKSTP & TID Made in Hong Kong Seminar

The seminar named “Made in Hong Kong” was co-organized by Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) and Trade and Industry Department (TID) on 10^th July 2018.  Hong Kong products are highly regarded in the Mainland and overseas.  Products manufactured in Hong Kong can also enjoy preferential tariffs under CEPA and the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) that Hong Kong has signed with other economies.  This seminar aimed to introduce the services of the Trade and Industry Department with regard to origin certification, including issuance of certificate of origin and formulation of origin rules, as well as, strategic trade control system in Hong Kong.  In the beginning, Mr. Patrick Siu (COO, HKSTP) presented a souvenir to the speaker.

Mr. Francis Ho (Assistant Director-General of Trade and Industry (Systems)) was guest speaker and his presentation topic named “Hong Kong Origin Certification System”.  The Certificate of Hong Kong Origin (CO) aimed for Trade Facilitation and is a document certifying that a good is made in Hong Kong and is of Hong Kong origin.  It is not a mandatory export document.

For CO, factory registration is the first step.  It based on Hong Kong laws and they were “Exports (Certificate of Origin) Regulations (Cap. 60H)” and “Protection of Non-Government Certificates of Origin Ordinance (Cap. 324)”.  Only factories which possess the necessary production capability in Hong Kong can obtain a CO for their products.

There are several CO issuing authorities including TID and five government approved certification organizations (GACOs) and they were HKGCC, FHKI, CGCC, CMA and ICCHK.

The certificate sample is showed below. 

There are two major types of COs and they are Non-Preferential Cos and Preferential Cos. Based on Rules of Origin (ROOs), Non-Preferential ROOs (NPROOs) established in accordance with internationally accepted practice and standard, and follow the basic principle of substantial transformation.  Preferential ROOs (PROOs) established under the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed by Hong Kong and our trading partners.  Hong Kong-origin exports to these places can enjoy tariff preferences only if they meet the specified origin rules.  For example, assembled in Hong Kong and containing at least 25% Hong Kong cost content attributable to local raw material, component parts and labor.  

There are two types of Factory Registration (FR) and they are Local Subcontracting Arrangement (LSA) and Outward Processing Arrangement (OPA).  

After briefed CO issues, Mr. Francis Ho discussed “Strategic Trade Control System (STCS) in Hong Kong”. STCS aimed to prevent Hong Kong from being used as a conduit for proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and secure continued access to high technology for maintaining Hong Kong’s role as a regional centre of trade, finance, banking, logistics and telecommunications.  It based on Import and Export (Strategic Commodities) Regulations (Cap. 60G).

If you would like to get more information about Hong Kong Control List, it could be found in website at www.stc.tid.gov.hk . 

Q&A session

Many participants asked about their new and innovation product CO’s criteria including assembly subcontracting, mixing raw material, strategic commodities and HKHS coding classification, etc.

Reference:

HKSTP - http://www.hkstp.org

20100826: 2008/2010 SME Mentorship Programme Celebration - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2010/08/20082010-sme-mentorship-programme.html

20110217: SUCCESS 2011/12 SME Mentorship Programme - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2011/02/success-201112-sme-mentorship-programme.html