13/10/2014
Meeting in Cairo to discuss its rules
Unified Arab customs system enters into force by 2015
Legal Affairs officials proceeded to Arabic customs bodies, in the discussion of draft regulations relating to customs law the Arab uniform as one of the requirements of the unified Arab Customs Union. The law is expected to come into force Consolidated Arab customs next year 2015 on a complementary system of economic integration and strengthening the major Arabic free trade area. This came during the twenty-third meeting of the joint Customs Code Committee, which began today at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the League of Arabic in Cairo, headed by Director General of the Legal Department of the Saudi Customs; Adviser Abdullah Al muqhim.
Almuqhim Said according to the Saudi News Agency, the meeting will discuss three-day draft regulations relating to customs of the Arab uniform law, pointing out that the Bill includes more than 180 articles governing the Legal Affairs of the Arab Customs Union and common legal matters relating to the import, export and customs offences and matters related to transit trade and how to counter smuggling and traders rights and other matters related to trade. The meeting discussed about seven articles of the regulations under the export and industrialization, the proposals of the Committee on customs procedures on imported foreign goods that are released to the local market and damaged goods or obtaining the approval of the competent authorities, in addition to the article about calculating the value of goods for customs purposes, has been postponed until the study of Arabic States.
Intermediate Arabic trade remains weak despite the conclusion of Arabic States free trade agreements and trade facilitation. Latest statistics show that it did not exceed 10, at a time of increasing trade exchanges with the rest of the world. Summarizes a report by the Federation of GCC Chambers and finally highlighted the obstacles facing the development of intraregional trade in the absence of transparency and the information about the deal or trade between Member States, especially with regard to disclosure of administrative procedures and the different economic policies all of which are an essential element in the implementation process of the region, this absence resulting detrimental impact on the course of actual implementation of the trade. In addition to discriminatory tax treatment, where there is a tax on imported goods is different than for the local product such as sales tax, consumption tax, excise tax, value added tax, and there are cases where different fees as in the charging case in conformity with the specifications, reducing opportunities for fair competition with local product, the imposition of fees for services in the form of Percentage of the value of the imported merchandise produces an effect similar to tariffs, and thus lead to discriminatory treatment of local products.
