Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref. :EIC 631/2
EIC 631/2/5/1
EIC 631/23
EIC 631/23/3

28 November 2023

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 851/2023

The Mainland of China : "Cooperation Agreement on the Supervision of Safety and Facilitation of Customs Clearance of Food Products Manufactured in Hong Kong Exported to the Mainland"

To fully implement the "Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement" and the "Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area", the Environment and Ecology Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China (GACC) signed on 27 November 2023 the "Cooperation Agreement on the Supervision of Safety and Facilitation of Customs Clearance of Food Products Manufactured in Hong Kong Exported to the Mainland (Cooperation Agreement)" which provides a facilitating arrangement for customs clearance for specific food products that meet relevant requirements so as to shorten the time required for customs clearance.

2. The Cooperation Agreement will initially cover three major categories of food, namely (i) beverages and cold drinks (excluding alcoholic and dairy beverages); (ii) biscuits, pastries and bread; and (iii) candies and chocolates (including chocolate, cocoa butter substitute chocolate and their products). The arrangement will be available at the ports under the Shenzhen Customs and the Gongbei Customs. After the Hong Kong-manufactured food products of the concerned categories covered by the Cooperation Agreement are confirmed in compliance with the specific requirements, a food product which shows no abnormality during an on-site inspection but needs to be sampled can be released by the Mainland Customs upon completion of sampling without waiting for the results.

3.After signing the Cooperation Agreement, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will discuss with the GACC the operational details of the Cooperation Agreement, including the food standard, testing method, sampling methodology and the template of the official certificates. The new measure is expected to commence in the first half of next year. Please refer to the Appendix (pdf format) for the relevant press release.

ENQUIRIES

4.For details of the Cooperation Agreement, please refer to the relevant webpage of CFS or contact its Food Import & Export Section (tel: 2867 5560; fax: 2521 4784; email: fsc@fehd.gov.hk). For other questions on this circular, please contact Mainland Branch (I) (tel: 2398 5444) of the Department.

Yours faithfully,



(Miss Sindy LEE)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

Note: While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the above information, the Department cannot guarantee this to be so and will not be held liable for any reliance placed on the same.