The Andean Community of Nations (CAN) decided last Wednesday to partially reduce the freight for customs valuation, a measure that can be applied by each member country of the organization (Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador).
The measure, which contains 3 items, was included in the Decision 894 published in the Official Gazette 4426 of the agency. The first article states: Each member country may temporarily apply, for the tariff subheadings that it determines, the reduction of a percentage of transportation expenses and/or related expenses, included in the first paragraph of article 6 of Decision 571.
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In the rest of the articles it is stated that the member country that adopts the measure must communicate it to the General Secretariat of the Andean Community, within 90 working days from its entry into force, so that it can be brought to the attention of the Andean Community. the other member countries.
The application of the percentage will be valid until December 31, 2023. However, the document indicates that the extension may be evaluated, only once, for an additional year.
The regional body indicated that the issue began to be discussed at the meeting of the extraordinary period 154 of October 21, 2021, in which the Andean Community Commission determined that the issue be analyzed by the Customs Affairs Committee and valuation experts in customs.
Finally, the Valuation Expert Group of the Customs Affairs Committee at its meeting held by videoconference on March 15, 2022, agreed to prepare a proposal for the temporary application of a percentage reduction in transportation and/or related expenses.
“The current crisis in the international maritime freight transport sector and the disruption of the supply chain caused, among others, by the lack of ships in operation, the intermittent closure of ports due to COVID-19, the congestion of ports and the shortage of containers, has led to an increase in international freight rates, generating cost overruns for producers and, in turn, an increase in the price of final goods for the final consumer”, determined the CAN in one of the recitals to issue the decision.
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Meanwhile, this decision has already generated positive comments from the Ecuadorian industrial sector. The Chamber of Industries of Guayaquil, indicated in a statement that the decision is important to provide greater legal certainty to the national regulations established in the Organic Law for Economic and Fiscal Development, published on November 29, 2021, since the union highlighted that the National Government collected the request made by the production unions and included it in said law to later request the CAN to modify Decision 571, which establishes the obligation to include said cost in the customs valuation.
“It is important to mention that Senae, since the publication of the Organic Law for Economic Development, has been excluding the cost of freight from customs valuation,” the Chamber clarified.
Source: Eluniverso
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