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During its joint meeting with the Federation of Gulf Chambers, the Customs Union Authority presented 12 proposals to stimulate intra-regional trade and streamline customs procedures, in line with the directives of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regarding the need to involve the Gulf private sector in economic decisions and policies.
The memorandum and the proposals it contained were discussed at a coordination meeting held by the Federation of Gulf Chambers at the headquarters of the Council of Saudi Chambers in Riyadh last week. The meeting was chaired by Federation President Khalil Abdullah Al-Khanji and Federation Vice President and Chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers, Engineer Abdullah Al-Mubti, Abdul Rahim Naqi, Secretary-General of the Federation of Gulf Chambers, and Eng. Khalid Al-Otaibi, Secretary-General of the Council of Saudi Chambers, prior to the Federation’s meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council Customs Union Authority.
The meeting concluded with a consensus on the importance of the memorandum presented by the Federation regarding the optimal structure of the Customs Union and production capacity, which included numerous recommendations and proposals concerning the facilitation of customs procedures.
The recommendations included establishing mechanisms to improve customs procedures that hinder trade and the movement of loaded and empty trucks, upgrading land border crossings and extending their operating hours, facilitating the entry and exit of non-Gulf truck drivers and granting them multiple-entry visas; forming a committee comprising the General Secretariat, the Customs Union Authority, and the Federation of Gulf Chambers of Commerce to visit the border crossings and evaluate customs practices and procedures; training staff at customs checkpoints; considering the application of international best practices to privatize certain customs checkpoint functions; integrating corresponding cross-border centers to avoid duplication of customs and non-customs procedures; streamlining customs procedures while maintaining security measures, establishing an information center linked to all customs and non-customs ports of entry, and adopting a unified automated system for customs clearance.
The Federation’s memorandum reviewed the problems faced by the gold, metals, and precious stones sector at air and land customs ports and called for granting this industry the exemptions approved by the Supreme Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council at its 2nd session2 in the Sultanate of Oman, namely by exempting machinery and raw materials for the duration of the establishment’s operation, while semi-finished goods and packaging materials would be exempt for a renewable period of five years, in addition to exempting the final product from customs duties within the Gulf Customs Union, in line with other industries, and providing technical support to enterprises operating in this sector to introduce modern manufacturing technologies.
The Federation emphasized that problems at customs checkpoints and the backlog of trucks and goods are causing major issues for the commercial sector and the land transport sector, the most significant of which is the impact on the production capacity of industrial facilities due to the accumulation of inventory in their warehouses as a result of shipments being held up at customs yards, which negatively affects producers and transportation companies.