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Whether or not Hong Kong is rated a ‘success’ is not up to US President Donald Trump, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday. Photo: Dickson Lee

Hong Kong’s ‘success’ based on years of back-breaking effort and mainland help, not a label Trump or others can strip away: foreign ministry

  • Commerce chief Edward Yau, meanwhile, reveals officials and legal experts studying WTO rule book over ‘Made in China’ dispute
  • City may use global body’s dispute resolution mechanism to challenge impact of US administration’s decision
Beijing hit back at Washington on Friday, asserting its contribution to Hong Kong’s prosperity, a day after US President Donald Trump suggested the city would “never succeed” under Chinese control and predicted its markets would “go to hell”.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily press briefing that the international financial hub’s “success” was not a title that could be stripped away by other countries.

“The status of Hong Kong as an international financial hub lies in the back-breaking effort by generations of Hongkongers, as well as perpetually enhanced reforms on the part of China, which provides the strongest and most forceful backing for Hong Kong,” he said.

Hong Kong officials are studying the World Trade Organisation’s rule book to see how they might challenge the US over its requirement that goods from the city are relabelled. Photo: AFP

Zhao was responding to remarks Trump made during an interview with American cable network Fox News on Thursday.

“Hong Kong can never succeed having China, as opposed to the thousands of geniuses that ran it, having China run it,” he said, adding that US markets would, as a result, make “a lot more money” and that Hong Kong’s markets would “go to hell”.

Earlier this week, his administration announced it would require Hong Kong to label its exports “Made in China”, as opposed to Hong Kong, as part of its widening campaign to strip the city’s of its special trading status. To counter what he saw as China’s increasingly tight grip on Hong Kong, his administration also imposed sanctions on 11 Hong Kong and mainland officials last week.
We will study the ways to see how to [challenge the ‘Made in China’ labelling requirement], and what the past examples are. But our offices in Geneva and in Washington DC ... are doing such work
Commerce secretary Edward Yau

Hours before Zhao’s remarks, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah revealed the local government was studying the World Trade Organisation rule book for ways to challenge the US’ “Made in China” labelling requirement.

Speaking on a Friday radio programme, Yau stopped short of giving details, but said initial work had begun to study ways, including legal means, to take Hong Kong’s case to the global trade body.

“We will study the ways to see how to do it, and what the past examples are,” he said. “But our offices in Geneva and in Washington DC, as well as our lawyers in the Department of Justice, are doing such work. This is what I can say at this stage.”

In the latest salvo between Washington and Beijing, the change of product labels arose from US President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending the privileges Hong Kong enjoyed under the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, with the result that it would be treated as “just another Chinese city”.

The order was signed in response to Beijing’s decision to impose a national security law in June, a move Trump said trampled on Hong Kong’s democratic development and the autonomy guarantees mandated under the “one country, two systems” governing principle.
Two days after Washington said Hong Kong’s US-bound exports must drop the tag of “Made in Hong Kong” from September 25, US Customs and Border Protection on Thursday issued a clarification on its website saying the goods could still use “HK” as a country of origin, which effectively meant punitive tariffs connected to the US-China trade war would not apply to Hong Kong goods.

Donald Trump says Hong Kong markets will ‘go to hell’ because of Chinese control

Responding shortly afterwards, Yau said the clarification caused confusion.

“It is an attempt to impose an origin marking on Hong Kong products, basically asking Hong Kong traders to tell a lie,” he said. “How can products made in Hong Kong be labelled as from some other place?

“To put it simply, can a Canadian product be named as US made or Mexican made?”

Yau’s comments were ridiculed by the opposition camp, with some questioning whether the minister was suggesting the quality of Hong Kong products were better than mainland ones, or whether Hong Kong should not be seen as part of China.

On Friday morning, Yau made it clear that it was trade rules he was concerned about, not product quality or politics.

US sanctions: economist Yu Yongding flags risk of Chinese bank assets being seized overseas

He called the US decision an “unacceptable misrepresentation” to be “strongly condemned”, saying Hong Kong’s membership in the WTO, as well as its status under one country, two systems, identified the city as a separate customs territory.

“Trade is bilateral, the more uncertain it is, the worse off it is for the both of us,” he said.

As an example, the commerce minister cited the trade war, during which consumer confidence fell and uncertainty rose, and the US trade surplus to the city fell by 14 per cent year on year in 2019, even though the tariffs did not apply to Hong Kong products.

The minister said many local companies were leveraging their US partners to seek urgent clarification, and to put pressure on the US administration over the new rules.

In 2019, Hong Kong exported US$471 million worth of goods made in the city to the US, accounting for 0.1 per cent of the city’s total exports. Most of those were jewellery, electronic goods and electric appliances.

Yau also said even though the rules might not have a huge impact across the board for local commerce, it was important to look at the disproportionate impact on individual industries.

He said after the US slapped a 23 per cent tariff on aluminium products on several jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, two years ago, the Hong Kong government had also made representations to Washington, even though it only affected one local company whose major market was the US.

But he also admitted uncertainty in using the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism to resolve the latest dispute, acknowledging that while the trade body operates on a rules-based system, the US has often obstructed proceedings deemed unfavourable to it, including by blocking the appointment of members to the dispute settlement panel and holding up meetings.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Beijing hits back after Trump’s HK outburst
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