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US-China relations
EconomyChina Economy

National security law: Hong Kong’s US exports to be relabelled ‘Made in China’

  • Notice in US government register says Hong Kong goods for export to US must be relabelled ‘Made in China’
  • This means goods made in Hong Kong will be subject to trade war tariffs previously levied only on mainland Chinese companies

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Hong Kong companies will be subjected to the same trade war tariffs levied on mainland Chinese exporters, as the United States says “Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment in relation to China”. Photo: Shutterstock
Finbarr Bermingham

Goods made in Hong Kong for export to the United States will have to be labelled “Made in China” after September 25, according to a US government notice.

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The move, in accordance with the suspension of the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 and the invoking of US President Donald Trump’s executive order on “Hong Kong Normalisation”, will see Hong Kong companies subjected to the same trade war tariffs levied on mainland Chinese exporters, should they make products subject to these duties.

A notice will be published on the US Federal Register on August 11, stipulating that “45 days after the date of publication”, goods “must be marked to indicate that their origin is ‘China’”. The move is “due to the determination that Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment in relation to China”.

The confirmation of a move implied by Trump’s previous legislation is another blow to Hong Kong’s struggling economy and to the high-value, if low-volume base of exporters in the city. Goods that fail to comply will face a punitive 10 per cent duty at US ports.

The Hong Kong government said in a statement on Tuesday evening that it was mulling filing a claim at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), of which it is a separate member, accusing the US of sowing “confusion and harming the interests of all parties, including the United States itself”.

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