Hong Kong and the United States say they will work closer to stamp out illegal transshipments of textiles following the signing of an agreement this week. The co-operation ends several rounds of negotiations after the US Government controversially imposed additional import measures on Hong Kong textile shipments in 1996. The SAR delegation to Washington was led by the Director-General of Trade, Alan Lai Nin, who met US trade representatives. 'Both sides re-affirmed their common goal of combatting illegal transshipments and reviewed the co-operation that has been on-going between the two sides,' the Deputy Director-General of Trade, Stanley Ying, said. To further enhance co-operation and the effectiveness of their respective efforts, the two sides agreed on additional co-operation to combat illegal transshipments, Mr Ying said. Hong Kong had objected to unilateral action by the US, pointing out that the additional requirements were discriminatory. As part of the agreement reached, the US will remove the remaining requirements on imports from Hong Kong, for original signatures by manufacturers and sub-contractors on US textile declarations, and certification by importers on the accuracy of textile declarations. 'Illegal transshipment is an offence under Hong Kong law, and will not be tolerated by the Government. We will continue to enhance our efforts to enforce our law and combat illegal transshipment,' Mr Ying said.
