US Reportedly Poised to Strip Hong Kong of Preferential Tariff Rates Amid Rising Tensions With China

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that Hong Kong no longer warrants the same kind of treatment under the US laws in the same manner as said laws were applied to it before July 1997.

The United States government could be set to suspend Hong Kong's preferential tariff rates for exports to the US, Reuters cites people familiar with the matter as saying, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous enough to warrant such treatment.

"The State Department is required by the Hong Kong Policy Act to assess the autonomy of the territory from China," Pompeo said. "After careful study of developments over the reporting period, I certified to Congress today that Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws in the same manner as US laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997."

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has announced that Paris is concerned with China's new proposed legislation that “has raised international alarm over freedoms in Hong Kong”, as Reuters puts it.

During a hearing at French Senate, Le Drian stated that the implementation of said legislation might trigger a new wave of protests and call into question the basic freedoms of Hong Kong.

Last week, Hong Kong witnessed a wave of disruption ahead of the debates on the legislation which would ban all secessionist and subversive activity.