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              Congressional                                            ______
          a Research Service






Revoking Hong Kong's Preferential Trade

Status: Legal Framework and Implications



Updated April 2, 2021

On July 14, 2020, then-President Donald Trump issued an executive order finding the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region (Hong Kong) no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment
in relation to the People's Republic of China (China) with regard to specific laws listed in the Order, and
suspending differential application of those laws to Hong Kong. One of the relevant laws, 19 U.S.C.
@ 1304, sets out how products from other territories must be marked to indicate their country of origin. In
response to the Executive Order, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a notice requiring all
goods previously marked with Hong Kong to indicate China as their country of origin. Since this
action, Hong Kong has initiated a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute against the United States,
arguing the new marking requirements violate several WTO agreements. On March 31, 2021, President
Joe Biden's Administration indicated that it intends to maintain the suspension of differential treatment of
Hong Kong.
This Sidebar presents the legal framework that applies to Hong Kong's status as a separate customs
territory from China, and it analyzes the implications of the U.S. actions as well as Hong Kong's decision
to initiate WTO proceedings. Although the former President's executive order suspended a number of
other statutory provisions that gave preferential treatment to Hong Kong, these actions are beyond this
Sidebar's scope.


Background

On May  28, 2020, the National People's Congress of China approved a decision authorizing its Standing
Committee to enact laws to prohibit acts and activities in Hong Kong it considers to undermine national
security. The same day, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States issued a joint
statement expressing deep concern about China's decision, suggesting that such a law would
dramatically erode Hong Kong's autonomy and conflict with China's international obligations to
respect such autonomy stemming from, among other things, the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the
Question of Hong Kong. In addition, the U.S. Secretary of State issued a report finding Hong Kong no
longer sufficiently autonomous from China to warrant certain privileges under U.S. law that allow Hong
Kong to be treated differently than China. Thereafter, President Trump announced on May 30, 2020, that

                                                               Congressional Research Service
                                                               https://crsreports.congress.gov
                                                                                   LSB10488

CRS Legal Sidebar
Prepared for Members and
Committees of Congress

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