Incoming passenger convicted and jailed for importing duty-not-paid cigarettes
An incoming passenger was sentenced to two months' imprisonment and fined $1,000 by the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts today (December 6) for importing duty-not-paid cigarettes and failing to declare them to Customs officers, in contravention of the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance (DCO).
Customs officers intercepted a 32-year-old incoming male passenger at Hong Kong International Airport yesterday (December 5). About 13,200 duty-not-paid cigarettes, with an estimated market value of about $59,000 and a duty potential of about $43,000, were seized from his personal baggage. The passenger was subsequently arrested.
Customs welcomes the sentence. The custodial sentence has imposed a considerable deterrent effect and reflects the seriousness of the offences. Customs reminds members of the public that under the DCO, cigarettes are dutiable goods to which the DCO applies. Any person who imports, deals with, possesses, sells or buys illicit cigarettes commits an offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.
Members of the public may report any suspected illicit cigarette activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).
Incoming passenger convicted and jailed for importing duty-not-paid cigarettes Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Hong Kong rises to world's fifth-largest trading entity in merchandise trade
According to the report "Global Trade Outlook and Statistics" published by World Trade Organization (WTO), Hong Kong ranked as the world's fifth-largest trading entity in merchandise trade in 2025, two places up from 2024. The total merchandise trade recorded a year-on-year increase of 17.5 per cent to US$1,585 billion, accounting for 3 per cent of the world's total.
The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Algernon Yau, said today (April 2), "The WTO report fully demonstrated that despite the challenges brought about by geopolitics and trade protectionism in the past year, Hong Kong's external trade remained resilient and achieved an encouraging result, making the city the world's fifth-largest trading entity in merchandise trade after the Chinese Mainland, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. If the European Union is taken as a single trading entity, Hong Kong ranks fourth."
Mr Yau noted that Hong Kong has long adopted free trade and firmly supports and has upheld the rules-based multilateral trading system to provide trading partners with a predictable and transparent market. In addition, leveraging the institutional advantages under the "one country, two systems" framework and the highly internationalised business environment, Hong Kong has become the most important and agile gateway for business and trade in the region.
"The report also showed that a series of measures carried out by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government(HKSARG) for promoting trade, including expanding economic and trade networks, stepping up efforts in attracting enterprises and investment, deepening ties with international markets, exploring emerging markets, enhancing support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and promoting Hong Kong's participation in the Belt and Road initiative and opening up the Mainland market, have achieved fruitful results, enabling Hong Kong to continue to play a pivotal role in international trade," Mr Yau added.
He said, "This year marks the beginning of the country's 15th Five-Year Plan and the HKSARG is also formulating Hong Kong's five-year plan to actively align with it. The 15th Five-Year Plan explicitly supports Hong Kong in better integrating into and serving the overall national development to further consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's status as an international trade centre, leveraging its unique advantages of being backed by the motherland and connected to the world. The HKSARG will continue to promote trade and focus on further assisting Mainland enterprises in going global through Hong Kong as a platform to explore new areas of economic growth in addition to strengthening the aforesaid measures, with a view to fulfilling our roles as a 'super connector' and a 'super value-adder'."
Riding on the good performance last year, merchandise exports continued to show strong performance in early 2026. In February 2026, the values of Hong Kong's total exports and imports of goods both recorded year-on-year increases, at 24.7 per cent and 29.9 per cent respectively. Taking January and February of 2026 together, the value of total exports of goods increased by 29.6 per cent over the same period in 2025. Concurrently, the value of imports of goods increased by 34.1 per cent.
According to the WTO report, Hong Kong ranked as the world's fifth-largest trading entity in merchandise trade in 2025. Hong Kong was the world's fifth-largest exporter and the sixth-largest importer of goods (both were three places up from 2024).
Globally, the world's top 10 merchandise traders in 2025 were basically the same as those in 2024. While the top four traders, namely the Chinese Mainland, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, remained unchanged in ranking, Hong Kong moved two places up to the fifth position, followed by the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy and Mexico.
For commercial service trading, Hong Kong was the world's 22nd-largest commercial service trading entity in 2025. It was the world's 23rd-largest commercial services exporter and the 25th importer (both remained the same ranking as that in 2024). Hong Kong's total trade in commercial services amounted to US$211 billion in 2025, accounting for 1.2 per cent of the world's total and representing a 6.6 per cent increase from 2024.
The "Global Trade Outlook and Statistics" report is available at www.wto.org/english/res_e/reser_e/gots_e.htm.
Source: AI-found images
