APEC customs plan to cover nine areas
APEC customs plan to cover nine areas
OSAKA, Japan (AFP): APEC's five-year action plan for customs procedures to be adopted here next weekend will cover nine areas and carry specific deadlines, a senior Japanese finance ministry official said yesterday.
Susumu Fujimoto, director of the international trade organizations division of the ministry's customs and tariff bureau, said the actions were aimed at harmonizing and accelerating customs procedures between the group's 18 members as well as making them more transparent.
The nine-point plan is to be adopted by leaders of the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum at a summit here on Nov. 19 as part of a wider blueprint for promoting trade and investment over the next 25 years.
Fujimoto, who chairs the APEC sub-committee on customs procedures, said the "common action plan" would be accompanied by two longer-term goals -- introducing risk management and electronic commerce systems for cargo clearance and considering the use of common data for customs processing.
Under the nine-point plan, APEC members agree to adopt or abide by the principles of two World Customs Organization conventions known as the harmonized customs convention and the Kyoto convention.
Speaking at an APEC customs symposium, Fujimoto said members also agreed to adopt the principles of two World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements on valuation and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights.
In addition, APEC members will adopt and support a United Nations computer-language standard for electronic commerce known as Edifact.
The remaining four areas of the action plan are aimed at making customs procedures more transparent and speeding them up.
In the area of transparency, APEC members will have to publicize the often opaque and sometimes random administrative guidelines, procedures and rulings which supplement customs laws and regulations. Members will also have to introduce clear provisions for appeals, Fujimoto said.
With the aim of accelerating customs procedures, members will have to introduce advance tariff classification ruling systems and provide facilities for temporary imports -- in the case of exhibitions, for example.
APEC ministers are to hold their seventh annual meeting here next Thursday and Friday ahead of the weekend summit between the group's leaders.
Rice
Meanwhile, the Philippines said yesterday it would insist that a special exemption granted for rice imports under the Uruguay Round of trade talks be maintained within APEC's planned free trade regime.
Trade Secretary Rizalino Navarro said in Manila that concessions granted under the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement for Tariffs and Trade (GATT), allowed Manila to put off liberalizing its rice imports until 2004.
He noted that this was far ahead of the 2020 deadline that had been set for proposed free trade within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum but he would not say if Manila would agree to liberalize rice imports by 2020.
"It is a sensitive sector. (APEC) should recognize our condition for rice, " since it was already recognized under GATT, he said.
The trade secretary not say what specific conditions Manila would seek for rice, adding that "it is not something we will outright say will be exempted or excluded."
Navarro also would not say if the Philippines was aligning with China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in seeking special treatment for agricultural imports under the APEC plan for a free trade area.
Fourteen other APEC members oppose giving exemptions to agriculture. They are led by Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Thailand.
The forum groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.