A protest opposing “overwhelming” parallel trading activities in Sheung Shui is planned for May 1.
“Parallel trading activities in Sheung Shui have not seen improvements over time, government departments have not cared about it, letting Sheung Shui [fall to] ruin,” event organiser North District Parallel Imports Concern Group said on its Facebook page.
The group planned to hand out leaflets in the area to urge parallel trading groups and parallel traders to “bring peace back to the North District”.
Ronald Leung Kam-shing, the group’s convenor, said on a RTHK radio programme on Friday that they were not targeting every single pharmacy in the area.
“We will only target those related to parallel trading activities,” he said. Leung added that protesters would not enter the pharmacies.
He denied the leaflets would only be handed out to specific groups.
“Most of those who come to Sheung Shui, 90 percent of them were in parallel trading,” he said. “We will not only hand them to mainlanders, but everyone there related to those activities.”
After the programme, Leung told reporters that there were around 70 pharmacies in Sheung Shui related to parallel trading activities, and the problem was “serious and overwhelming”.
“Naturally people will be crowding over there to take, distribute and pack the goods, and then go to the train station or taxi station – if they know their goods are overweight,” he said.
He said the protest will be restrained and demonstrators will be urged not to be provocative.
But the group also said they expect far fewer parallel traders on the day of the protest, as they would have heard the news and would clear out of the area for the day.
