In response to the increase in international freight rates, the Andean Community approved the regulation that empowers Member Countries to: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to temporarily reduce a percentage of the transport costs for the purposes of determining the customs value.
The Decision was adopted last week in the framework of the 126th Period of ordinary sessions of the CAN Commission, chaired by the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade of Ecuador as Pro Tempore President of the CAN, Daniel Legarda. The Vice Ministers of Trade of Bolivia, Benjamín Blanco, of Colombia, Andrés Cárdenas, of Peru, Ana Cecilia Gervasi and the Secretary General of the Andean Community, Jorge Hernando Pedraza, participated.
"This regulation seeks to prevent additional costs from being generated for producers and in turn the price of final goods to the final consumer is not increased, thereby addressing the current crisis in the international maritime freight transport sector and the disruption of the supply chain caused, among others, due to the lack of ships in operation, the intermittent closure of ports due to Covid-19, port congestion and the shortage of containers", explained the head of the Andean organization.
According to the Decision, Each country may temporarily apply, for the tariff subheadings it determines, the reduction of a percentage of transport costs and/or related costs., as established by Decision 571 “Customs value of imported goods”, the country that adopts this mechanism must also communicate it to the General Secretariat of the CAN within 90 business days from its entry into force, so that it may be brought to the attention of other countries.
The session also approved the Decision that will allow the development of two projects within the framework of the Community Initiatives Fund (FIC), promoted by the General Secretariat of the CAN: one for the training of auditors in good manufacturing practices and another to implement a Regional Center for Andean Phytosanitary Intelligence.
Likewise, at the meeting, the Secretary General of the Andean Community presented the progress of the issues related to the economic reactivation process of the region in matters related to the Andean agricultural agenda, the Andean digital agenda, electronic commerce, the fourth industrial revolution, intellectual property, regional value chains, the INTERCOM project to facilitate trade, among others, which was highlighted by the vice-ministers present at the session.
Aduana News is the first Argentine customs newspaper to launch its digital version. With 20 years of experience, its publications and initiatives aim to provide the most relevant knowledge on customs issues in order to contribute to safe trade in the region.
