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.