| Ref. :
TRA CR 1015/41
26 May
2000
Dear Sirs,
Air
Cargo Transhipment (Facilitation) Ordinance
Introduction
This
is to inform the trade about the changes brought by the Air Cargo Transhipment
(Facilitation) Ordinance.
- The Air Cargo Transhipment
(Facilitation) Bill 2000 was published in the Gazette on 10 March and
tabled in the Legislative Council on 15 March. Upon passage by the Legislative
Council on 17 May, the bill was enacted into the Air Cargo Transhipment
(Facilitation) Ordinance (hereafter referred to as "the Ordinance")
which came into operation on 26 May 2000 through publication in the
Gazette.
Details
- The Chief Executive
announced in his 1999 Policy Address the determination to further develop
Hong Kong into an international and regional air cargo hub. There is
a need to provide the conditions to facilitate this development.
- Before the enactment
of the Ordinance, air transhipment cargo going through Hong Kong were
treated as both "import" and "export"; those which
required licences for "import" and/or "export" were
accordingly subject to licensing control during air transhipment.
- The newly enacted
Ordinance carries legislative amendments to four ordinances and 15 regulations
to provide facilitation for the transhipment of air cargo handled within
the restricted areas of the airport. Except for certain categories of
air transhipment cargo including hazardous wastes, narcotic drugs, infectious
materials such as germs and human remains, explosives and sensitive
Strategic Commodities for which licensing requirements need to be maintained
for trade, public health, safety and internal security reasons, for
other miscellaneous categories of non-sensitive air transhipment cargo,
the import and export control requirement in the form of permit/licence
are relaxed under the operation of the Ordinance. These goods include-
- dutiable commodities
such as alcoholic liquor and tobacco
- radiocommunication
transmitting apparatus
- pharmaceutical
products and medicines
- optical disc
mastering and replication equipment
- rice
- left hand drive
vehicles
- outboard engines
- pesticides
- food materials
such as colouring matter and preservatives
- meat and animal
products
- marine fish
- smokeless tobacco
products
- ozone depleting
substances
- For certain Strategic
Commodities, the Ordinance provides for the implementation of an Air
Transhipment Cargo Exemption Scheme. Details are contained in a separate
trade circular.
- In order to benefit
from such facilitation, the Ordinance makes it clear that such air cargo
has to be imported and exported by aircraft under a through air waybill
and has to remain at all times during transhipment within the restricted
areas of the Hong Kong International Airport or any other area within
the airport to be approved by the Commissioner of Customs and Excise.
- Traders interested
to know the details of the legislative amendments are advised to refer
to the Air Transhipment (Facilitation) Ordinance gazetted on 26 May
2000. The Ordinance is available for sale at the Government Publications
Sales Centre at Queensway Government Office, Low Block, G/F, 66 Queensway,
Hong Kong.
- Further enquiries
on the subject may be directed to Miss Teresa Kam at tel. no. 2398 5618.
Yours faithfully,
(Miss Fiona Chau)
for Director-General
of Trade
Distribution
Airlines, Shipping
Companies, Freight Forwarders and Airport Cargo Operators
|