Proceedings of the 14th Meeting of
The COMCEC Trade Working Group
17
Hanoi, Vietnam, during the occasion of the 6th ASEAN Summit and ratified in 1999 in order to
hasten the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).
She explained the main principles of the agreement are most favoured nation treatment,
national treatment, simplicity, transparency, efficiency, appeals and mutual assistance.
Furthermore, Ms. MUKHTAR highlighted the objectives of the agreement as follows;
1. Facilitating transportation of goods in transit and to support the implementation of the
AFTA and to further integrate the region’s economies
2. Simplifying and harmonize transport, trade and customs regulations and requirements
for the purpose of facilitation of goods in transit
3. Establishing an effective, efficient, integrated and harmonized transit transport system
in ASEAN.
Moreover, Ms. MUKHTAR informed participants on the key features of the ACTS which are single
electronic customs declaration from departure to destination, single transit document for
transit from departure to destination called Transit Accompanying Document (TAD), single
guarantee valid for the international journey from departure to destination, secure and efficient
system for to end operation, single means of transport, complete Customs to Customs and
Customs to Business network. Then, she briefly explained the ACTS process and procedure in
the pilot implementation.
In the last part of her presentation, Ms. MUKHTAR mentioned about the lessons learnt from the
process. She briefly touched upon the following points;
 Customs and transport authorities have to ensure the readiness of traders and
transporters with complete understanding on the ACTS procedure,
 Member States need to have the same spirit to have the ACTS fully realized for trade
facilitation,
 Technical issues may be expected but they shall not be major failure of connectivity
among the transit countries,
 Major functionalities for a smooth end to end transit operation should be thoroughly
identified beforehand.
7.4. Sudan
Mr. Omer ALGAYLI, Expert from the Customs Authority in Sudan, delivered a presentation
regarding facilitating the transit trade in Sudan.
Mr. ALGAYLI started his presentation by pointing out that Sudan has a geographical position to
be a key player in the transit trade. He stated that Sudan has four land-lock neighbouring
countries which are Ethiopia, Chad, Central Africa and South Sudan. He added that Sudan has
allocated special ports to the imports and exports of some of these countries.