Express carriers want freedom to file import declarations worldwide

Express carriers want freedom to file import declarations worldwide Express carriers voiced concern this week that the World Trade Organization and World Customs Organization appear to be 'retreating' on a previous commitment to eliminate national mandates for companies to file import declarations to customs administration via customs brokers.
   The Brussels-based Global Express Association told the heads of the WTO and WCO in a Dec. 2 letter that the use of customs brokers should not be a requirement for companies to interact with national customs administrations.
   'Mandated use of the services of a favored professional group is a symptom of and contributor to political corruption,' warned John P. Simpson, director general of the association, which represents UPS, FedEx, DHL and TNT.
   Express carriers, with their capacity as both transporter and importer, believe they are technologically and regulatory sophisticated enough to interact with customs administrations directly.
   'Customs brokers can provide highly valuable services and many importers choose to use the services of customs brokers even when they are free to submit their own declarations,' he added. 'But customs brokers like all other professionals should rely on the market for their business, not government coercion. Governments should not be in the business of mandating use of private commercial services.'
   In specific, the Global Express Association is concerned about language in a July 11 WTO revised trade facilitation document that states: 'From the entry into force of this commitment, members not requiring the compulsory use of customs brokers shall not introduce or apply any new requirements to use customs brokers.'
   The initial WTO facilitation document, released on June 6, 2006, specifically stated that 'Without prejudice… (country) members shall not require the use of customs brokers' and that 'developing country and least-developed country members shall eliminate any requirements to use customs brokers not later than [X] years from the entry into force of this commitment.'
   'If, as is stated explicitly in… the revised textual proposal, it is undesirable for a WTO member to introduce new requirements to use customs brokers then it is also undesirable for any new member to maintain an existing requirement to use customs brokers,' Simpson said. 'The revised document in effect creates a 'grandfather clause'    that sanctions the use in perpetuity of a practice that is recognized as being undesirable, in those countries where it is already in use.'
   Simpson also pointed up a November speech by WCO Secretary General-elect Kunio Mikuriya to the directors generals of customs from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, in which he 'opened the door for deviation' from the 2006 WTO facilitation text and the WCO's revised International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (Chapter 8, Standard 1), in an effort to 'persuade more Latin American countries to ratify the convention.' Customs administrations in the region have voiced concern to the WCO about the potential for political backlash from customs brokers if importers are allowed to conduct business directly with customs.
   Mikuriya suggested in his speech a scenario requiring importers to obtain 'prior consent' of customs before they have direct access to customs. 'Will this interpretation help you to overcome a possible fear among customs brokers?' he said.
   'Whether customs administrations in such countries will ever authorize direct lodgment of declarations by importers is a matter for speculation, but it is undoubtedly true that additional signatories can be added to the (revised Kyoto) convention by obfuscating its standards to ignore their violations,' Simpson said. 'But then what is the point of having standards?'
   Simpson told Shippers' NewsWire that the Global Express Association has been informed that the proposed WTO revision would not necessarily affect its members' ability to file directly with customs using their own in-house brokers, but could affect many other importers, particularly small and mid-sized businesses, that cannot maintain an in-house broker.
   'Our opposition (to the WTO revision) is based on principle,' Simpson said. 'Even if it is clarified that we can continue to use our own in-house brokers we believe that the mandatory use of brokers is unnecessary and experience has show that it can even be harmful.' ' Chris Gillis