3 May 2004

Dear Sirs,

Strategic Trade Controls Circular No.18/04

Amendments to Schedule 1 of the
Import & Export (Strategic Commodities) Regulations

Introduction

Since the last substantial revision made to Schedule 1 to the Import and Export (Strategic Commodities) Regulations ("the Regulations") by way of an Amendment Order in July 2001, more changes were adopted by the various international non-proliferation control regimes on their control lists, based on which Hong Kong's strategic commodities control list as set out in the Regulations is drawn up. To reflect the latest international control standards into Hong Kong's control lists, the Import and Export (Strategic Commodities) Regulations (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2004 ("the Order") was gazetted on 30 April and will be tabled at the Legislative Council on 5 May.

The Order

2. The Order seeks to amend Schedule 1 to the Regulations to reflect the revisions adopted by the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA), Australia Group (AG), Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to their respective control lists up to end-2003. Amongst all the changes to be introduced, the most significant ones are :
   
   
   1. the removal of control on general purpose microprocessors, graphics accelerators and graphics coprocessors used in computers; and
      
      
   2. the relaxation of control threshold of digital computers from 28,000 to 190,000 million theoretical operations per second (Mtops).
      
      
3. A summary of major changes brought about by the Order is at Annex.(pdf format) 
   
   
4. For full details of the amendments, traders must refer to the Order by visiting the websites of the Strategic Commodities Control System (http://www.stc.tid.gov.hk) or the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (http://www.gov.hk) [Legal Supplement No. 2 of the Gazette Published on 30 April 2004 (No. 18 Vol. 8)].

Effective Date of the Order

5. If no objection is raised by the Legislative Council during the period stipulated in Section 6B of the Import and Export Ordinance, the Director-General of Trade and Industry will announce the commencement date of the Order, possibly in a day in June, in a gazette. A separate circular will be issued in due course to inform traders of the commencement date of the Order.

Enquiry

6. If you have any question about the revisions brought about by the Order, please contact our Classification Section at 2398 5587. For other licensing matters, please contact our Licensing Section at 2398 5575.

Yours faithfully,

(Ms Michelle POON)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry