FILE PHOTO: A General View of Kwai Tsing Container Terminals for Container Transportation in Hong Kong, China July 25, 2018. REUTERS / Bobby Yip
(Reuters) – Goods made in Hong Kong for export to the United States should be labeled to be made in China after September 25, according to a U.S. government statement released Tuesday.
The move follows China’s imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong and a US decision to end the former British colony’s special status under US law, escalating bilateral tensions that had already increased over trade war tariffs and the treatment of coronavirus outbreaks.
The final step will be to consider Hong Kong companies under the same tariffs for trade war imposed on Chinese exporters on the mainland should they have to negotiate products to meet these obligations, the US Customs and Border Protection said.
It said that 45 days after its publication, goods “should be marked to indicate that their origin is ‘China’.”
The move came after the United States ruled that Hong Kong “is no longer autonomous enough to justify differential treatment in relation to China”.
Trump has made tough talks against China a hallmark of his November re-election campaign.
The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam and accused the city’s current and former police forces of curtailing political freedoms in the former British colony.
In delay, China on Monday imposed sanctions on 11 U.S. citizens including lawmakers from Trump’s Republican Party.
U.S. Prime Minister Steven Mnuchin said Monday that companies from China and other countries that do not meet U.S. accounting standards will be abolished from U.S. stock exchanges by the end of 2021.
Report of Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; edited by John Stonestreet
.
