Prevention of Treaty Abuse – Second Peer Review Report on Treaty Shopping

Hong Kong (China)

A. Progress in the implementation of the minimum standard

Hong Kong (China) has 39 tax agreements in force, as reported in its response to the Peer Review questionnaire. Two of those agreements, the agreements with Belarus* and Finland, comply with the minimum standard.

Hong Kong (China) joined the MLI in 2017, listing 36 tax agreements.1

Hong Kong (China) is implementing the minimum standard through the inclusion of the preamble statement and the PPT.2

The agreements that will be modified by the MLI will come into compliance with the minimum standard once the provisions of the MLI take effect.

B. Implementation issues

No jurisdiction has raised any concerns about their agreements with Hong Kong (China).

Summary of the jurisdiction response – Hong Kong, China

 

	Treaty partners	Compliance with the standard	If compliant, the alternative implemented	Signature of a complying instrument	The alternative implemented through the complying instrument (if not the MLI)	Comments
1	Austria	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
2	Belarus*	Yes	PPT alone	N/A	N/A
3	Belgium	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
4	Brunei Darussalam	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
5	Canada	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
6	Czech Republic	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
7	Finland	Yes	PPT alone	N/A	N/A
8	France	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
9	Guernsey	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
10	Hungary	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
11	India	No	N/A	No	N/A	To be added to the list of agreements that Hong Kong wishes to cover under the MLI or through bilateral negotiations of an amending protocol
12	Indonesia	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
13	Ireland	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
14	Italy	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
15	Japan	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
16	Jersey	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
17	Korea	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
18	Kuwait*	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
19	Latvia	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
20	Liechtenstein	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
21	Luxembourg	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
22	Malaysia	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
23	Malta	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
24	Mexico	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
25	Netherlands	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
26	New Zealand	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
27	Pakistan	No	N/A	Yes	N/A	Partial compliance (just lacks the new preamble)
28	Portugal	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
29	Qatar	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
30	Romania	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
31	Russia	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
32	Saudi Arabia	No	N/A	No	N/A	To be added to the list of agreements that Hong Kong wishes to cover under the MLI or through bilateral negotiations of an amending protocol
33	South Africa	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
34	Spain	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
35	Switzerland	No	N/A	Yes	N/A	Switzerland has not listed this agreement in its MLI position and has proposed bilateral negotiations of an amending protocol instead
36	Thailand	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
37	United Arab Emirates	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
38	United Kingdom	No	N/A	Yes	N/A
39	Viet Nam	No	N/A	Yes	N/A