Glenda Allen, Staff Reporter
PERSONS INVOLVED in the import and export trade in Jamaica and across the CARICOM region should see their processing and waiting time significantly reduced following new measures from the island's Customs Department.
Director of Public Relations, at Customs, Naomi Goulbourne-Rodney, says as of September, one (new) document will replace several existing customs forms, five of which were manually produced.
"The Single Administrative Document (C87) is the latest invention for Customs. This form will replace six forms currently in use, namely, the Import Entries, C78, C25 and C24, Trans-shipment Bill C36 and Export Entries C43 and C82," the document brochure read.
The forms, one of which accounted for more than 14,000 transactions per month, covered a variety of areas including import entry of commercial goods or personal shipments, deposit entry, trans-shipment bill (used to move goods from one carrier to another within Jamaican ports, and the shipping bill for export.
The move reportedly puts Jamaica at the forefront of regional trade boards attempting measures to ease customs the tediousness of transaction processing, and will allow for parity between CARICOM member states.
"This form is intended for use by all CARICOM member-states. It will aid the CSME objective and may reduce regional documentation, interpretations/ inefficiencies. It will achieve documentation uniformity throughout the region,"
The island is set to host matches in the upcoming Cricket World Cup 2007, and some parties point to this as further motivation for the stepped-up schedule ahead of other Caribbean countries.
"The trainers have already been trained, the schedule for staff training is complete and staff training is in process. Representatives from the customs brokers organisations were a part of the training of trainers and they will train the customs brokers," Goulbourne-Rodney said.
Meanwhile president of the 250-member Customs Brokers and Freightforwarders Association of Jamaica (CBFAJ), Donovan Wignall, was guardedly optimistic of the move. "For all it promises to do, it should augur well for the economy, he said. "As long as it translates to less red tape, less bureaucracy, we're happy, as long as it translates to efficiency then we'll be very happy."
Customers and brokers may view the form online, and whereas there was some difficulty accessing the other forms as they were available at few places, the new form will be readily available.
