Improving the Border Agency Cooperation

Among the OIC Member States for Facilitating Trade

(PSD) of Ministry of Health on regulating and controlling imports, exports and transits of

pharmaceutical products.

International training

In Malaysia, there is one WCO regional training centre in Malacca. In a typical year, Malaysia

organises six to seven training courses for both Malaysian customs people and visiting customs

experts from other countries. Participation of foreign people in the training events is always a

good opportunity for exchanging intelligence and best practices. The international training and

educational activities increase common understanding over topical customs challenges and

provides a solid practical platform for building and fostering customs-to-customs relationships

in the ASEAN and global settings. Although there would be more demand for international

training and educational activities, recent budget cuts have reduced the number of annual

training courses available for foreign customs people.

Harmonisation of licensing and product safety rules

The Malaysian health authorities follow the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA)

for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) of Medicinal Products. This agreement sets regional

quality criteria for medical products, in this way facilitating cross-border trade, distribution,

and marketing of pharmaceuticals. The Malaysian National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency

of the Ministry of Health contributes to several other regional harmonisation initiatives that

aim to minimise technical barriers to trade. There are active ASEAN-level product-specific

working groups at least for pharmaceuticals, traditional medicines and health supplements,

and cosmetics. These product-specific working groups develop technical guidelines, promote

common standards and disseminate information about common best practices to product

quality and safety in the region. Further regulatory harmonisation, however, faces certain

challenges. Although the guidelines and standards are set regionally, interpretation and

commitment to implementation differ from country to country. To overcome this obstacle,

health authorities in ASEAN have launched capacity building programs that seek to ensure that

all countries understand the common rules and achieve necessary quality.

International collaboration on air cargo security

Air cargo security is a key consideration of international air operations: uncoordinated

security procedures put air traffic at a risk and slow down the flow of time-critical air freight.

Currently, the most important air cargo security initiative in Malaysia is the Secure Freight

program of the International Air Transport Association (IATA)

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. The program seeks to

establish a supply chain where air cargo is secured early on, at the upstream supply chain, and

then protected from tampering all the way to the final destination. The program helps

countries to meet (and go beyond) requirements of the Annex 17 and 9 of the International

Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Chicago Convention, a treaty binding 191 countries. At the

time being, there is no ASEAN-level collaboration on air cargo security.

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The IATA Secure Freight should not to be confused with the Secure Freight Initiative (SFI) of the US Department of

Homeland Security. The latter initiative is about screening of US-bound

maritime

containers for nuclear and radiological

threats in foreign, non-US ports.

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Air cargo security is only one of many important areas of civil aviation. Beyond security matters, ASEAN has been actively

promoting liberalization and consolidation of the single South-east Asian civil aviation market (e.g., the ASEAN Open Sky

Agreement Policy).