Officials representing Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Customs Authorities are scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss obstacles hampering the implementation of the GCC customs union in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Deputy General Manager of the Federal Customs Authority (FCA) and head of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) delegation to the meetings Sa’eed al Mirri said: “These meeting are very significant and instrumental in facilitating the cooperation between GCC member countries. Through exchanging points views and expertise, participants strive to create an economic body capable of competing in the international arena.”
Al-Mirri said “GCC Officials will discuss many important issues, especially the completion of the Prohibited Products list and issuing insurance policies for imported goods. Moreover, the meetings will discuss opportunities for exchanging customs expertise and employee’s between GCC countries, to enhance mutual cooperation and sharing of up-to-date technologies.” He added: “the meeting will discuss the facilitation of customs exemption for goods originating from Arab countries that have free trade treaties with some of GCC members, through the unified entry point”.
With the objective of controlling and coordinating customs affairs in each Emirate of the UAE, the FCA is responsible for drawing up customs policy in cooperation with local customs departments. It aims to consolidate legislation with a view to streamlining the working of local customs and standardize their enforcement of fraud and smuggling detection measures across the UAE.
Its focus is to impose uniform tariff collection and ensure that all monies due to the government are collected/remitted effectively. It also aims to promote competition based on infrastructure/service of each Emirate rather than on varying tariff rates. The customs tariffs at the national and GCC level have been set at five percent across the board.
The FCA is also the umbrella under which all local UAE customs authorities will interact in a unified fashion with GCC customs authorities and other international counterparts. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
