Features

Hong Kong signs two new tax treaties

Hong Kong has added France and Austria to the five countries it has full taxation agreements with. The comprehensive double taxation agreements (CDTAs) help with trade and finance and attract professionals to work in Hong Kong. The Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development requires Hong Kong to have 12 CDTAs that adopt OECD standards on the exchange of information. Since March 2010, Hong Kong has signed CDTAs with Brunei, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Hungary and Kuwait. Local tax authorities have also reached agreement on CDTAs with Ireland, Japan, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, while negotiations are under way to upgrade existing treaties with the Mainland, Vietnam, Belgium and Luxembourg to the OECD’s newest standards.

Bill to strengthen food safety control

The Food Safety Bill was gazetted on 20 May and introduced into LegCo on 2 June. It will strengthen food safety control by introducing a food-tracing mechanism. The bill provides that a person who carries on a food importation or distribution business must register with the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene. The registration will be valid for three years and subject to renewal on a three-year basis. The registration fee will be $195, and $180 for renewal. Food traders who have already registered or have obtained a licence under other ordinances will be exempted from the registration requirement. Following the bill’s passage, the government will introduce the relevant
regulations into LegCo.

Lawmakers endorse Geoffrey Ma as top judge

The Chief Judge of the High Court, Mr Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li, has received formal endorsement from LegCo to succeed Mr Justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang as Chief Justice. Lawmakers voted unanimously to endorse Ma to take up his new role from September, but their speeches expressed the importance and vulnerability of Hong
Kong’s judicial independence. With LegCo’s formal endorsement, it only remains for the appointment to be reported to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, for the record.

Copy limits come into force

The Copyright (Amendment) Ordinance 2007 (Commencement) Notice 2010 has been gazetted and specifies 16 July as the date provisions relating to the copying and distribution offence will come into operation. The copying and distribution offence was added to the Copyright Ordinance (Cap 528) in June 2007. A person commits an offence if he or she for the purpose of, or in the course of, any trade or business and on a regular or frequent basis, without the licence of the copyright owner, makes for distribution or distributes an infringing copy of a copyright work in a printed form contained in a book, a magazine, a periodical or a newspaper, resulting in a financial loss to the copyright owner. Business users are reminded that they will remain liable to civil claims from copyright owners if they make for distribution or distribute copies of printed copyright works without an appropriate licence.