FACILITATING INTRA-OIC TRADE:
Improving the Efficiency of the Customs Procedures in the OIC Member States
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2.3. CRUCIAL FACTORS FOR ACHIEVING SUCCESS IN CUSTOMS R EFORM
-Political Will
Strong political will is crucial for achieving success in customs reform. The
governments mostly illustrate their political will for such reforms through a set of
actions including:
1) Accedes to the international conventions such as RKC,
2) Includes the customs modernization in national development plans,
3) Assigns a relevant authority, in many cases the Customs Administration, as a
coordinator or the focal point in modernization process,
4) Establishes a Trade Facilitation Body and initiates a diagnostic study,
5) Adopts and implements a comprehensive modernization plan which is prepared
in close consultation with the relevant stakeholders, including private sector and
relevant international institutions,
6) Sets a time frame to realize the modernization plan or program,
7) Speeds up the entry into force of relevant laws or amendments to the existing
laws, as part of the modernization plan,
8) Allocates adequate financing from the national budget and/or works closely with
the private sector and international donors for possible financial contributions,
9) Implements administrational and human resources reforms.
The governments shall also take into consideration of the fact that, the reform process
will require time, financing, technical assistance and dedicated efforts to reach the
results. The evidence shows that, some of the reform programs in developing countries
could not be finalized within the planned time frame due to various reasons such as
replacement of the governments, changing priorities, pressure of different interest
groups, delays due to bureaucracy, financial constraints etc. Also, the main lesson to be
learned from these failures is that unless a comprehensive, holistic approach is taken,
which redresses all the various supporting aspects of capacity building and reform,
attempts to simply implement new import/export procedures will inevitably fail
immediately or be unsustainable in the medium term (IFC 2007).
-Legal Framework
Main objectives of the Customs Reform will be to reach the modern customs standards,
in other words acceding to the Revised Kyoto Convention and other relevant
conventions. According to the Article 13/1 of the RKC, the contracting countries shall
implement the Standards of the General Annex within 36 months after the Annex has