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Trade and Industry Department The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Brand Hong Kong - Asia world city

Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)

Individually Owned Stores

Liberalisation Measures under CEPA

The Agreement on Trade in Services covers and consolidates commitments relating to liberalisation of trade in services provided in CEPA and its Supplements and also the Agreement between the Mainland and Hong Kong on Achieving Basic Liberalisation of Trade in Services in Guangdong.
Agreement on Trade in Services
Additional Liberalisation Measures under Cross-border Services (Positive List)
Others
  • Individually Owned Stores 1
Specific commitments
  1. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents with Chinese citizenship to set up, in accordance with the relevant Mainland laws, regulations and administrative regulations, individually owned stores in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government in the Mainland, without being subject to approval procedures applicable to foreign investments, excluding franchising operation. Scope of business includes: grain cropping; cropping of vegetables, ornamental crops such as edible mushroom; fruit cropping; nut cropping; spice cropping; cropping of Chinese herbal medicine; forestry2; animal husbandry; poultry husbandry; aquaculture; irrigation services; primary processing services of agricultural products (excluding processing of seed cotton); other agricultural services; forestry services; animal husbandry services; fishery services (aquaculture breeding production permits required); grinding of grains (excluding processing of rice and flour); processing of meat products and sub-products (excluding western meat products processing items of 3000 tonne/year or below); aquatic products refrigeration processing; minced fish products and aquatic products dry-cure processing (excluding frozen minced seawater fish production line); processing of vegetables, fruits and nuts; manufacture of starch and starch products (excluding wet process production line of corn starch with annually-processed corn below 300 thousand tonnes and oven-dry yield below 98%); manufacture of bean products; processing of egg products; manufacture of baked food; manufacture of candies, chocolate and succade; manufacture of convenience food; manufacture of dairy products [excluding concentrating and spray dry equipment with the daily processing capacity of raw milk (two shifts) below 20 tonnes and manual and semi-automatic liquid milk canning equipment below 200 kilogram/hour]; manufacture of canned food; manufacture of gourmet powder; manufacture of sauces, vinegar and similar products; manufacture of other flavourings and fermented products (excluding salt); manufacture of nutrition food; manufacture of cold beverages and edible ice; beer brewing (excluding beer filling production line with production capacity less than 18 thousand bottles/hour); vinification; manufacture of carbonated beverages [excluding production line of carbonated beverages with production capacity below 150 bottles/minute (with bottle volume of 250 millimetres or less)]; manufacture of bottled (canned) drinking water; manufacture of fruit/vegetable juice and fruit/vegetable drinks; manufacture of milk beverages and vegetable protein beverages; manufacture of solid beverages; manufacture of tea beverages and other beverages; textile industry; manufacture of curtains and fabric products; textile and garments, garment industry; leather, furs, feathers and related products and footwear manufacturing industry; timber processing and wood, bamboo, cane, palm and straw products industries; furniture manufacturing industry; paper making and paper products industries (excluding production of rice paper); manufacture of stationery, education and office products; manufacture of musical instruments; manufacture of arts and crafts (excluding carving and processing of nationally key protected wildlife, production of bodiless lacquerware, production of enamelware and production of inksticks); manufacture of sporting goods; manufacture of toys; manufacture of amusement equipment and entertainment goods; manufacture of daily chemical products; manufacture of plastic products; manufacture of daily glass products, manufacture of daily ceramic products; manufacture of metal tools; manufacture of porcelain-on-steel daily commodities and other porcelain-on-steel products; manufacture of metal daily commodities; manufacture of bicycles; manufacture of off-road leisure vehicles and spare parts; manufacture of batteries; manufacture of domestic electrical appliances; manufacture of non-electrical domestic appliances; manufacture of lighting tools; manufacture of clocks, watches and timers; manufacture of glasses; manufacture of daily sundries; wholesale of forestry products; wholesale of textile, apparel and household goods; wholesale of stationery; wholesale of sporting goods; wholesale of other cultural goods; trade agency; other trade brokerage and agency; import and export of goods and technologies; retailing services (excluding the retailing of tobacco products and franchising operation); retailing of books, newspapers and journals; retailing of audio-video products and electronic publications; retailing of arts and crafts and collectibles (excluding the retailing of cultural relics collectibles); road freight transport; other maritime transport auxiliary activities, specifically referred to port cargo loading and unloading services, storage and warehousing, port supplies (vessel materials and daily commodities), leasing and repair of port facilities, equipment and port machinery; goods handling and loading/ unloading services, and transport agency services (excluding agency services for air passenger and cargo transport, and agency for Mainland internal water transport); storage and warehousing services; food and beverages services; software development; information system integration services; information technology consulting services; data processing and storage services (only limited to business of offline data processing services); leasing services; economic and trade consulting and company management consulting in socio-economic consulting; advertising; intellectual property services (excluding trade mark agency services and patent agency services); packaging services; the following items of office services: the design and production services of signs and bronze plaques, the design and production services of trophies, plaques, medals and silk banners; translation services under office services; two items of the other unlisted business services under the business services: corporate ceremonial services: ceremonial services for opening ceremonies, celebrations and other major events; personal business services: personal image design services, organisation services of personal activities, and other personal business services; research and experimental development (excluding research in humanities and social sciences); professional technical services; quality inspection technical services(excluding animal quarantine services, plant quarantine services, inspection/testing and certification-related services, and special equipment inspection/testing services); engineering technology (excluding planning management, surveying, design and supervision); photography and photographic processing services; scientific technology promotion and application services; technology promotion services; scientific technology intermediary services; sewage treatment (excluding environmental quality monitoring and pollution source investigation services); air pollution control (excluding environmental quality monitoring and pollution source investigation services); refuse disposal (excluding environmental quality monitoring and pollution source investigation services); noise abatement services under other pollution control and other environmental protection services (excluding environmental quality monitoring and pollution source investigation services); municipal facilities management (excluding environmental quality monitoring and pollution source investigation services); environmental sanitation management (excluding environmental quality monitoring and pollution source investigation services); washing, cleaning and dyeing services; hair dressing and beauty treatment services; bathing services; marriage services under residents services (excluding matchmaking services); other residents services; repair of motor vehicles3 ; repair of computers and auxiliary equipment; repair services of household electrical appliances; repair services of other daily goods; building-cleaning services; other unlisted services: pet services (to be operated in municipalities only); outpatient clinic; sports; craft activities which are mainly for the purpose of leisure and entertainment (pottery, sewing, painting etc.) under other indoor entertainments; cultural entertainment agents; sports agents; wholesale of food and beverage; general guesthouses; other accommodation services; real estate intermediary services; operation of activities with individually owned real estates.
  2. To allow Hong Kong permanent residents with Chinese citizenship to set up, in accordance with the relevant Mainland laws, regulations and administrative regulations, individually owned stores, lifting restrictions on the number of persons engaged in the operation and the business area of individually owned stores.
  3. To lift the identity authentication requirements on Hong Kong permanent residents with Chinese citizenship setting up, in accordance with the relevant Mainland laws, regulations and administrative regulations, individually owned stores.

1 With respect to the organisation form of individually owned stores, all liberalisation commitments made by the Mainland to Hong Kong service suppliers are set out in the form of Positive List in accordance with the Industry Classification for the National Economy (GB/T 4754-2011).
2 The development of commercial plantation for wood-based oil materials, such as oil tea, walnut, oil olive, eucommia ulmoides, oil-use peony, amygdalus pedunculatus, etc., shall be approved by the local forestry authorities at provincial level.
3 Repair and maintenance of vehicles and motorcycles.