Enhancing Public Availability of Customs Information

In the Islamic Countries

The national legislation requires actors to initiate an administrative appeal before a judicial

appeal or review. Border agencies other than Customs also maintain an appeal mechanism in

their matters. The appeal procedures are carried out in a non-discriminatory manner. In cases

of delay, the appellant has the right to bring the case to the next higher administrative level or

judicial appeal.

Procedures need to be as simple, straightforward and timely as possible. All requirements on

both the appellant and Customs are laid out in legislation and are easily accessible to all parties.

Customs is required to inform appellants in writing of decisions and are also expected to

implement final decisions promptly.

Judicial review could be lengthy and costly for traders. Administrative appeal processes often

offer substantive advantages over judicial reviews as they enable faster decision-making and

involve fewer costs for traders. The legislation in Senegal allows a multiple-stage appeal that is

deemed beneficial both for the traders and the national administrations. Furthermore, to ensure

impartiality and fair treatment, the authority which oversees the requests should be

independent from the administration which issued the original decision.

In line with WCO guidelines the administrative stage of the appeal process usually begins with

an initial right of appeal with the administration which issued the original decision; either at the

same level of authority, (for example, the Customs office) or to a higher power supervising the

administration. While in normal circumstances information about the reasons for the

administration's original decision is expected to be provided, this is not automatic and is

dependent on a request from the complaining party.

Review and appeal in Senegal are governed within a regional process as part of the regional

customs code. When a trader objects to a decision he/she has the right to appeal with the

relevant national authority responsible for ruling on customs disputes. Although the appeals

committees for disputes are available to traders in Senegal, most of the time human and financial

constraints prevent the authorities from rendering a decision swiftly.

WAEMU regulations mandate all decisions on classification at the national level can be taken

and tabled at the Commission for arbitration. Disputes regarding the origin of goods are dealt

with bilaterally between the country of destination and the country of origin.

If a ruling by Senegal customs is not satisfactory the trader may petition through the president

of the commission responsible for settling customs disputes to make a ruling.

Article 4 of the TFA on procedures for appeal or review has been notified in category A by

Senegal, a reflection of high confidence from the customs authorities in this area. However, the

OECD TFIs indicate that there may be issues with timeliness of some parts of the appeal process,

particularly judicial review. There is no time limit for decisions, which means that there is the

possibility of long delays, with resulting uncertainty costs, for traders.

Benefits, Challenges, and Lessons Learned

Benefits

The Senegalese state has identified three main benefits that it aims to obtain from the

availability of customs information to the public, which will be the focus of stakeholders during

the operationalization of the TIP.