Made in Hong Kong
The item was made in Hong Kong. US Customs accepted “Hong Kong” as the country of origin until 2020; since then goods made there must be marked “China” for the US.
How to read it
Hong Kong reverted to the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China on 1 July 1997. A US Customs notice of 5 June 1997 said goods produced in Hong Kong should go on being marked “Hong Kong” after that date. In July 2020 the President’s Executive Order 13936 determined that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous enough to justify treating it differently from China. CBP’s notice of 11 August 2020 (CBP Dec. 20-15) followed: goods produced in Hong Kong may no longer be marked “Hong Kong” and must be marked “China”, for goods entered into the US after 25 September 2020.
Also searched as: hong kong mark, made in british hong kong, made in hong kong.
This page says what a mark means under the rules that required it and when it was used. A mark helps date a piece; it doesn’t prove when or where any one piece was made.
The WTO dispute
Hong Kong, China took the requirement to the World Trade Organization in October 2020 (dispute DS597). The panel’s report, circulated on 21 December 2022, found that the United States itself determines the origin of these goods to be “Hong Kong, China”, not “China”, and that requiring them to carry another WTO member’s name, when goods from every other country carry their own, put them at a disadvantage in the US market. It rejected the US defence that the measure was needed in an emergency in international relations. On 26 January 2023 the United States appealed to the WTO’s Appellate Body; Hong Kong, China replied that the appeal could not proceed given the current non-operational situation of the Appellate Body.
Which country the mark names
For goods entering the US, the two marks now mean the same place of manufacture. A Hong Kong mark is the form US Customs required from 1997 until September 2020, and accepted before the handover too. A Made in PRC mark is a different case: it names mainland China, in an abbreviation US Customs doesn’t accept.
Read next
- Next in Country of origin marks and label numbersRN numberRN stands for Registered Identification Number: a number the US Federal Trade Commission issues to a US business that makes, imports, distributes or sells clothing and other textile, wool or fur products. It stands on the label in place of the company’s name.
- The same shape in AI labels and iconsContent Credentials (CR) iconContent Credentials. The small CR pin on an image or video means the file carries Content Credentials: signed information about how it was made and edited, which can include whether AI tools were used. Selecting the pin shows the details.
More country of origin marks and label numbers
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with letters and numbers or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- CBP Dec. 20-15, Country of Origin Marking of Products of Hong Kong, 85 Federal Register 48551 (11 August 2020), FR Doc. 2020-17599, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office, Summary; dates; background
- WTO dispute DS597: United States — Origin Marking Requirement, World Trade Organization, DS597 case summary (Secretariat), World Trade Organization, Summary of the dispute to date
Last reviewed October 8, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research
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