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1500 GENEVA TIME ( 1400 GMT  GMT) 18 DECEMBER 2002
PRESS/TPRB/208
18 December 2002
(02-6982)
TRADE POLICY REVIEW : HONG KONG, CHINA
Open trade regime has helped withstand recent external shocks
A report on the trade policies and practices of Hong Kong, China, released December 18 by the
WTO Secretariat, says that the territory maintains an open trade and foreign investment regime
which has been crucial for withstanding external shocks such as the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98 and the global economic slowdown in 2001.
The report also notes that Hong Kong, China has had to face considerable structural adjustment
associated with its growing integration into the rest of China, and that the approach of allowing
market forces to allocate resources remains, by an d large, in place. Howeve r, partly as a result of
the economic downturn, the Government would seem to have become more proactive inpromoting value-a dded activities.
A WTO report, along with the policy statement of the Government of Hong Kong, will serve as a
basis for the fourth Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Hong Kong, China by the Trade Policy Review
Body of the WTO on 16 and 18 December 2002.
The following documents are available in MS Word format on the WTO website. They can be
downloaded at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tp208e.htm
• Secretariat report
> Contents and summary observations
> Economic environment> Trade policy regime: framework and objectives
> Trade policies and practices by measure
> Trade policies by sector> Appendix tables
• Government report
• Chairperson’s concluding remarks
• Minutes of the meeting (available approximately six weeks after the meeting).PRESS/TPRB/208
Page 2 of 2
Note
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member
countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant
developments that may have an impact on the gl obal trading system are also monitored. For each
review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member underreview, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents
are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These
documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are publishe d shortly afterwards.
Print copies of the TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William
Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop athttps://secure.vtx.ch/shop/boutiques/wto_index_boutique.html  or follow this path :
www.wto.org >resources > publications > trade policy reviews
The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press , 4611-F Assembly
Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States
Next reviews:
Maldives : 15, 17 January 2003
El Salvador : 3, 5 February 2003
Canada : 12, 14 March 2003
For a full list of previous trade policy reviews and the full programme of future reviews go to
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tpr_e.htm#reviews
or follow this path : www.wto.org > trade topics > trade policy reviews
END