HONG KONG – Hong Kong is set to secure first-mover advantage in a push to become Asia’s pre-eminent hub for bullion trading by launching a gold-clearing system in the next couple of months.The clearing mechanism, expected to debut by July, is an important step in building the liquidity needed to influence pricing in the region. It would also take Hong Kong further down the road to creating a gold-trading centre than longtime rival Singapore, which has announced similar plans without committing publicly to a timeline.“If Hong Kong and Singapore are in a race to build clearing, it looks like Hong…