APEC forging ahead with customs plan
APEC forging ahead with customs plan
OSAKA, Japan (JP): APEC's finance ministers have been quietly
making significant progress in standardizing and accelerating
customs procedures among the 18 member countries, while their
trade and foreign ministers are still embroiled in trade
liberalization measures.
Officials of the Japanese finance ministry said yesterday that
the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum
are expected to endorse nine points to implement the common
action plan on customs procedures in their meeting next Sunday.
"Customs procedures may be technical but they are important to
the business community," a senior official of the ministry said.
The nine-point plan is classified into three categories:
improvement of transparency and credibility of customs
operations; harmonization of customs procedures; and rapid
customs clearance.
The points are the result of three Apec finance ministers
meetings held over the past three years, as well as a number of
symposiums on customs procedures.
The Japanese officials pointed out that while the points may
sound technical and do not generate headlines, their benefits to
the business community are tangible.
The points include the avoidance of confusion and additional
costs caused by differences in customs procedures among APEC's 18
members.
"There will be less paper work," the official said, citing an
Australian study which found that the cost of paper work
constitutes as much as 10 percent of the free on board price.
The points will also lead to speedier and more timely delivery
of cargo, which will also reduce the warehousing cost in
transportation and production process, they said.
On harmonization of customs procedures, the common action plan
calls for the adoption of the HS Convention on harmonization of
commodity tariff classification.
This would, for example, avoid the differences in definition
over whether a four-wheel drive vehicle constitutes a car or a
truck, the officials said.
The adoption of the valuation agreement, as laid out by the
World Trade Organization, will also ensure that every customs
agency in the region uses the same standard valuation system.
On transparency, the APEC finance ministers are proposing the
publication of customs related laws and regulations and
administrative guidelines, the introduction of clear appeal
provisions and the adoption of the World Trade Organization's
trade related investment principles.
On the acceleration of customs procedures, the plan includes a
call for the computerization of customs procedures and the
introduction of an advance tariff classification ruling system.
According to the Japanese officials, the finance ministers are
already looking ahead to a number of future plans.
Two already on the drawing board, they said, are risk
management and electronic commerce, and common data elements.
(emb)