First published: 05th December 2008
The Hong Kong Government has gazetted the Import and Export (Strategic Commodities) Regulations (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2008, it will be tabled at the Legislative Council on 10 December 2008. Once the legal procedure is completed, the Order will come into effect on a day to be appointed by the Director-General of Trade and Industry.
The Order seeks to bring Hong Kong's import and export regulations back in-line with the international non-proliferation regimes (viz. the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Australia Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, etc.). The changes include additions, expansions and relaxation of many detailed controls on munitions, nuclear processing equipment, materials, chemicals, micro-organisms, toxins, manufacturing equipment, electronics, telecommunications, information security, sensors, lasers, navigation, avionics, submarines, and aerospace
For Information Security, one control is relaxed:
Other changes of note are (3A001(a)(5)) the relaxation of control over analogue-to-digital converter integrated circuits with resolution of 12 bits or more (usable in commercial applications such as cellular systems, broadband systems and digital radio systems) and (3A001(e)(4)) the addition of control on certain solar cell, cell-interconnect-coverglass assemblies, solar panels and solar arrays.
