Hong Kong Customs extended on Sunday the Free Trade Agreement Transhipment Facilitation Scheme to cover transshipment cargoes from the Chinese mainland to Vietnam and Nicaragua via the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and from Serbia via the HKSAR to the mainland.
Hong Kong Customs will actively take forward the extension of the coverage of the FTA Scheme so that more goods passing through Hong Kong can enjoy tariff concessions provided under relevant trade agreements, according to an HKSAR government statement.
This would also assist enterprises to explore overseas markets and reinforce Hong Kong's pioneering status as a logistics hub, it added.
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The scope of service of the FTA Scheme originally covered cargoes of 68 economies under 20 trade agreements signed between the mainland and its trading partners to be transshipped northbound via the SAR to the mainland, and the mainland transshipment cargoes heading southbound via the HKSAR for Taiwan region, Korea, Singapore and Australia under seven trade agreements.
With the extension, local traders starting from Sunday can apply for a Certificate of Non-manipulation to claim a preferential tariff under the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Co-operation between the Association of South East Asian Nations and the People's Republic of China or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the China-Nicaragua Free Trade Agreement, and the China-Serbia Free Trade Agreement, for cargoes from the mainland transshipped to Vietnam and Nicaragua via Hong Kong, and those from Serbia transshipped to the mainland via the SAR.
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Hong Kong Customs has implemented the FTA Scheme since Dec 20, 2015 to provide traders with Customs supervision service and issue the Certificate of Non-manipulation to certify transshipment cargoes that have not undergone any further processing during their stay in Hong Kong, the statement added.
