The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states will have unified customs law by next year, reported the Bahrain Tribune newspaper on Wednesday.
“The recommendations of the World Trade Organization and other world bodies are being discussed by the committee to finalize the unified tariffs among the member states,” said Jassim M. Jamsheer, Bahrain’s director general of customs.
“Apparently, there will be no problem in implementation of the unified customs laws in the light of WTO recommendations as member states have already implemented ‘customs unified ordinance’ in 2000. The issue of customs deposits at the entry points and free movement of such goods among the member states will also be discussed and finalized. This step will create a free trade zone among the member states in order to encourage the importers in the wake of tough competition of globalization,” Jamsheer said.
In his inaugural speech at the four-day 12th meeting of the GCC Customs’ Committee, he said that a major obstacle, unified collection of tariffs and distribution among the member states, would be removed in near future.
Jamsheer said that Bahrain has been working actively to reduce customs tariffs since all the GCC member states signed an agreement in 1999.
“The GCC states had agreed to reduce the tariffs and fix them between 5.5 percent to 7.5 within by 2003. We hope that this round of talks will help remove major irritants as the member states have to devise a unified customs collection system within a specified time frame,” Jamsheer said – Albawaba.com
