CEPA beneficial to both: Beijing official

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, January 03, 2004

CEPA beneficial to both: Beijing official

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Tariff exemption for good of Hong Kong origin will reduce the expenditure of consumers in Beijing as well as the cost for companies that produce them in Hong Kong, and therefore it benefits both, a senior commerce official of the Beijing municipal government said here Friday.

The Chinese mainland/Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) became effective on Jan. 1.

The Chinese mainland and Hong Kong signed CEPA on June 29, 2003,which covers three areas, commodities trade, services trade and investment facilitation.

Starting on Thursday, customs on both sides will adopt unified customs clearance forms.

According to CEPA, good of Hong Kong origin which fall into themainland's 273 tariff categories enjoy tariff-free status on the mainland from Jan. 1, and the first batch of tariff-free goods from Hong Kong will reach Beijing in 10 days, said Li Zhao, director of the commerce bureau of Beijing,

He said the goods will not have substantial impact on the localmarket as most are relatively expensive commodities.

Li said about four companies from the Chinese mainland and HongKong are cooperating to build shops to sell commodities from Hong Kong in the Wangfujing area in downtown Beijing.

In 2003, the Beijing-Hong Kong trade volume reached 2.1 billionUS dollars, and Hong Kong has become the third largest trade partner of Beijing.

Government statistics show that by the end of 2003, Hong Kong had invested in 6,800 enterprises in Beijing with a contractual investment value of 17.6 billion US dollars.

Source: Xinhua

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