Customs Alert - Hong Kong/U.S. Joint Factory Visits
U.S. & Hong Kong officials have announced that they will be conducting joint visits of Hong Kong textile factories that manufacture clothing and textile products for exportation to the U.S. The visits will occur during a two week period beginning December 2 and ending December 16. The purpose of the visits is to give U.S. a greater understanding of Hong Kong’s textile operations and the effectiveness of its origin control system. As such, officials will have the opportunity to observe the processes in these factories as a whole and to discuss any specific shipments that have been documented as being destined for export to the U.S.
All factories who present Production Notifications (PN) covering cut and sewn garments from November 30 through December 16 will have to indicate whether or not they consent to the joint visits, and only those who give their consent will be subject to these visits. These factories will not be subject to any enforcement work during this period but may be subject to separate checks by Hong Kong Customs & Excise in a separate visit.
The visits are expected to slow the importation of the subject goods from Hong Kong to the U.S. since the processing of export licenses, PN’s and Certificates of Origin are likely to be delayed.
Furthermore, importers can expect U.S. Customs & Border Protection to begin detaining entries for these goods some time in January, 2007.
If you would like further information regarding this alert, or assistance in tracking your factories’ compliance, please contact Carl Soller or C.J. Erickson.