E-OPERATION COMING SOON FOR IMPORT AND EXPORT EXAMINATION

      To promote the goal of trade facilitation, the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT), Ministry of Economic Affairs announced recently that the “Facile Trade (FT) Net” established by private companies with government guidance was in the final testing stage. Once this new network begins operating, companies will no longer need to face multiple examining units when they send customs clearance, export and import permit, inspection, and quarantine cases for approval. All they will need to do is input their data one time, and it will be conveyed to and used by all of the agencies required. This will greatly reduce the time needed for examination and customs clearance.

　　The BOFT points out that the complexity of trade procedures, and the large number of documents required, impose a considerable burden of cost on companies engaged in trade; this is a common problem that is faced by countries all over the world, and the promotion of trade facilitation to reduce costs is a global trend. Two years ago the BOFT began reviewing export and import examination procedures and revising the related laws and regulations. To date, simplification of trade procedures has been discussed for 3,089 items of export and import goods; the examining units have agreed to simplification for 1,004 items (943 items of exports and 61 items of imports), nine different inspection application forms have been consolidated into one, five different quarantine certifications have been combined into one, and 19 S-cases that once required manual inspection have been changed to electronic inspection. By the end of November 2004, 22 export and import regulations had been abolished and 45 had been revised. A total of 798 textile-product export regulations are still scheduled to be abolished, with the remaining 139 needing coordination in the revision of laws. For further information, go online and visit http://ekm92.trade.gov.tw/BOFT/web/cat_list.jsp?data_base_id=DB009&category_id=CAT605.

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