Hong Kong ban on cosmetic animal tests sought as example to mainland

Hong Kong should impose a blanket ban on beauty products tested on animals to keep up with the global trends and set an example to the mainland, animal welfare advocates said.

During his visit to Hong Kong to attend a beauty product summit last week, Dr Nick Palmer, director of policy at the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, said he would like to see the city adopt legislation for "cruelty-free" beauty products to match the European standard.

Animal-tested beauty products can be sold in Hong Kong and only a handful of cosmetics companies label their products as free from animal testing.

In February 2003, the European Union agreed a continent-wide ban on testing cosmetics on animals. The first stage of the ban came into effect in 2009 and the last stage, which is the sale and marketing ban of new animal-tested cosmetics, is due to come into effect next year.

However, the beauty industry warned a ban as such would cost Hong Kong millions or even billions of dollars in lost income if tourists were forced to travel elsewhere or shop online to find the products they want.

Gordon Chalmers, chief operations officer of Jasmin Skincare, an Australia-based organic beauty product company, said the suggested ban might be "ethically correct", but was not commercially viable.

"This would drive tourists out of Hong Kong to do online shopping or to other places like Singapore to buy the beauty products they want," Chalmers said.