FACILITATING INTRA-OIC TRADE:
Improving the Efficiency of the Customs Procedures in the OIC Member States
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Advance rulings facilitate the declaration and consequently the release and clearance
process, as the classification of the goods has already been determined in the advance
ruling and is binding to all Customs offices for a specific period of time, e.g. 3 months
or 1 year (UNECE 2012).
Advance ruling is mostly requested by the trading community on customs valuation
which is one of the most problematic issue in clearance process. Despite being a party
to the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, many customs administrations in
developing countries and LDCs are facing problems in implementing the provisions of
the Agreement due to lack of capacity.
“Providing importers with an advance ruling on valuation can also speed up the
valuation procedure. Such a ruling can be obtained in advance when the
importer submits transaction-related documentation to customs. Once granted a
ruling, the importer notes the registration number of the ruling on his
declaration at the importation stage, and no further valuation work needs to be
undertaken, thus speeding up the clearance procedure.” Source: Goorman and
Wulf (2005)
-Appeal Mechanism
The right of appeal in Customs matters is not only a very important trade facilitation
measure, but also a fundamental element of rule-of-law-based legal systems, according
to which actions taken by the state and its executive bodies, e.g. Customs, have to be
based on existing laws and regulations (UNECE 2012). Appeal Mechanism envisages a
person the right of appeal against a decision of Customs.
Appeal mechanism is described by Article 10 of the General Annex of the RKC.
According to Article 10.2 “Any person who is directly affected by a decision or
omission of the Customs shall have a right of appeal”. Similarly, the new WTO Trade
Facilitation Agreement gives special emphasis on appeal. Its Article 4 is dedicated to
“Appeal or Review Procedures”. Both agreements state that, the legislations of the
contracting parties shall have administrative and judicial appeal mechanism and time
frame for such procedures. Mclinden (2005) suggests that, in developing or
implementing appeal or review mechanisms, an appropriate balance should be struck
between the need to make the process inexpensive, timely, and accessible and the need
to ensure that it is not used inappropriately for frivolous appeals. In some countries, the
appeal procedures are not clear or not aligned with international standards.
In order to make the Customs Administrations transparent, the concerned countries shall
follow-up the provisions of RKC and WTO Agreement to reform their appeal
procedures and publish these procedures on internet etc.