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Press Release

Amendments to strategic commodities control list gazetted

Thursday, May 4, 2006 

The Government will table at the Legislative Council on May 10, 2006 the Import and Export (Strategic Commodities) Regulations (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2006 to reflect the updated international controls on strategic commodities. 

"The purpose of the Order is to reflect the latest revisions adopted in the control lists of the various international non-proliferation regimes, i.e. the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Missile Technology Control Regime and the Australia Group", a spokesman for the Trade and Industry Department (TID) said. 

"The main changes include the removal of control over microprocessors that have multiple data or instruction bus or serial communication ports, and the relaxation of control threshold in terms of operational speed for digital computers. 

"Traders should welcome the amendments as they would relieve them from the burden of applying for import and export licences for the specific types of microprocessors and digital computers concerned," the spokesman said.

Under Hong Kong's legislative framework, the import and export of strategic commodities are subject to licensing control by the Director-General of Trade and Industry.

"The purpose of imposing licensing control is to monitor and control the flow of strategic commodities in order to maintain the confidence of technology supplying countries in our control system, thereby ensuring Hong Kong's continued access to high-technology." 

"Hong Kong has been closely following the control thresholds adopted by the international non-proliferation regimes when imposing control. Whenever these regimes introduce changes to their control lists, Hong Kong would follow suit where appropriate to ensure that on the one hand, we would always be upholding controls to the highest international standards, and on the other hand, we would relieve traders from licensing controls whenever the international standards are relaxed," said the spokesman. 

The Amendment Order was gazetted today (May 4) and will be introduced into the Legislative Council on May 10, 2006. Once the legal procedure is completed, the Order will come into force on a day to be appointed by the Director-General of Trade and Industry by notice in the Gazette. Traders may visit the website of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, www.gov.hk to access the Gazette. 

Enquiries on the amendments can be made to the Strategic Trade Controls Branch, TID, 5th floor, Trade and Industry Department Tower, 700 Nathan Road, Mong Kok, Kowloon, by telephone at 2398 5587 or by email at stc@tid.gov.hk. 

The TID will also inform traders of the details of the amended Schedule through circulars and general advisory service. 

Ends