The national director of Customs, Enrique Canon, reported that Uruguay is part of a group of nine countries that are promoting a mutual recognition agreement in Latin America. This agreement will guarantee that their customs agencies operate under the same norms and procedures, in order to reduce technical obstacles to trade.
«I intend for the National Customs Directorate to be a tool for the country's international insertion and facilitation, which sells Uruguayan work abroad."Canon stated this Tuesday (11.06.2019), within the framework of the work meeting organized by the firms Ferrere and CPA Ferrere, in their facilities in Montevideo, to analyze the opportunities generated by the Qualified Economic Operator (OEC) program for companies.
In addition to Canon, the director of the OEC Department of the organization, Diego Casella, and the manager of the Risk Management Consulting Department of CPA Ferrere, Ariel Jabcovski, and Laura Caffera, who is part of the Tax and Customs Department of Ferrere, also spoke.
"It is very difficult to lower tariffs further, they have already been reduced enough, so where can we gain in competitiveness? the speaker asked. “It is time to eliminate more bureaucratic procedures through the Single Window for Foreign Trade (VUCE) and through some other government agencies that intervene in the process."He said.
Canon noted that “The World Customs Organization (WCO) promotes partnerships between customs and other government agencies. This is expressed geographically in a coordinated management of borders where multiple state departments come together that can contribute efficiently to the process and become a tool for international insertion.".
Mutual Recognition Agreements
The director explained that, in this context, countries need to conclude mutual recognition agreements, which are agreements that guarantee that recognized customs agencies operate in an equivalent manner and apply the same standards and procedures, in order to reduce technical barriers to trade.They are laborious and require mutual validation visits, where compliance with certain standards is certified.", he said. To date, four validation visits have been made to different countries, the last one taking place last week in Uruguay, which were financed by the Inter-American Development Bank.
Within the framework of the XIII Presidential Summit of the Pacific Alliance, which took place on July 24 and 25, 2018 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the heads of state of that regional bloc, which includes Chile, Colombia, Peru and the host country, shared a plenary session with the presidents and representatives of Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, grouped in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), on issues of mutual interest.
In this context, both mechanisms agreed to promote a South American mutual recognition agreement, in order to ensure high levels of customs security throughout the supply chain of goods and promote the harmonization and standardization of processes.
In December 2018, in Sao Paulo, the first joint working meeting for this regional project was held between representatives of eight customs offices: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and our country. The participants expressed their willingness and commitment to move forward with the project, which was recently joined by Colombia and, in Canon's opinion, other countries will join.
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.
