Hong Kong and US Customs officers will conduct joint factory observation visits in Hong Kong from March 6.

Customs Head of Trade Controls Cheung Sai-yan said the joint visits are part of the ongoing co-operation between Hong Kong and the US to facilitate legitimate textiles and clothing trade between the two places, and to combat illegal trans-shipment of textiles and clothing products.

"The joint visits will keep the US up-to-date on the manufacture of textiles and clothing products in Hong Kong and the implementation of Hong Kong's origin-control programme for textiles and clothing exports.

"The visits will also facilitate a better understanding by the US Customs authorities of the effectiveness of Hong Kong's origin-control system in ensuring that textiles and clothing exports claiming to be products of Hong Kong are genuinely manufactured in Hong Kong," Mr Cheung said. 

"This will also be conducive to greater facilitation for the legitimate textiles trade, especially at a time when restrictive measures are still in place against certain textiles exports from other economies in the region," he added. 

The joint teams will visit only those textile factories which have given prior consent. Enforcement, if necessary, will be undertaken only by Hong Kong Customs, independently and separately from the visits.

The visits will last for about two weeks and will not disrupt the factories' normal production and operation.