The WCO Regional Vice-Presidency released this Monday (14.02.2022) a new monthly edition of its “Featured Country” newsletter dedicated, in this second installment of the year, to El Salvador, a country in Central America.
The publication presents the General Directorate of Customs of El Salvador, giving a brief overview of its history and providing relevant commercial information, such as its foreign trade revenue throughout 2021 and the main export and import products of this centralist Republic divided for administrative purposes into 14 departments grouped geographically into three zones: Eastern, Central and Western.
The newsletter also includes an interview with the Director General of Customs, Samadhy Martínez, where the lawyer delves into the pillars that frame the success of her management, as well as the most significant achievements that have been obtained.
In the conversation, Samadhy Martínez highlighted his management Aimed at excellence in customer service in accordance with the demands of international trade, to guarantee the integrity of the logistics chain and the controlling function of the Customs Service, following the guidelines of President Bukele's Government regarding the modernization of public institutions.
With respect to achievements obtained, the director highlighted the role of the National Customs Directorate in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has become a “resilient entity”. In this regard, she explained “…we deepened and streamlined the modernization plan of the General Directorate of Customs, training our human resources, creating expedited procedures, migrating towards the digitalization of services and automated management of foreign trade operations, investing in the physical infrastructure of customs facilities”.
Martínez also pointed out “the frontal fight against smuggling and fraud, taking decisive and effective actions that together amount to USD 25 million in 2021.”
In another part of the interview, referring to the plan of customs modernization In recent years, the director indicated aspects related to human resources, customs regulations and procedures, technology and infrastructure, detailing each component in depth.
In the face of the global pandemic, Martínez said that the actions of the customs office “have guaranteed the continuity of the flow of foreign trade operations, processing a total of 2021 imports (CIF value of USD 688.479 million) and 13.333 exports (FOB value of USD 311.340 million) in 6891, in addition to the rapid clearance mechanism for vaccines.”
According to the director, the critical situation made it necessary to have efficient management of human resources, simplify processes, adopt electronic information transmission mechanisms with other institutions, and above all, implement a coordination national and regional.
In this regard, "joint work with the private sector through the National Committee for Trade Facilitation and coordinated management with other customs offices" was crucial, said the head of the General Directorate of Customs of the Central American nation.
Among the countries in the Americas and Caribbean region highlighted above through their customs administrations are Honduras, Panama, Antigua and Barbuda, Chile and Uruguay. – (“Featured Country El Salvador” Newsletter)
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.
