OTTAWA: Head of the Trade Facilitation Task Force Patricia Francis says the practice of imposing maximum penalties for minor or inadvertent breaches of customs regulations is not done anywhere else in the world, and in fact runs counter to the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) rules on trade.
“Many of the procedures that we have are not facilitatory. We have, as members of the WTO, an obligation to ensure that whatever we are proposing as amendments to the (Customs) Act is actually in compliance with the WTO rules… and I would say some of them are not,” she told members at joint select committee meeting, which is reviewing the proposed changes to the Customs Act. Some stakeholders are worried that the new provisions hamper instead of enhance trade.
Francis, a former JAMPRO boss, pointed out that under the WTO trade facilitation agreement, no contracting party should impose substantial penalties for minor breaches of Customs regulations or procedural requirements. “In particular, no penalty in respect of any omission or mistake in Customs documentation, which is easily rectifiable and obviously made without fraudulent intent or gross negligence, can be greater than necessary to serve merely as a warning,” Francis said.
She said: “The 2014 amendment (to the Act), which removed the ‘not to exceed’ clause and imposes only maximum penalties is in contravention to this particular article. If we only impose maximum penalties, and do not allow for the clause not to exceed, we would be a unique country in the world. We need to look at that to ensure that we are not in breach of the WTO rule.
“We don’t want to spend time to make amendments now, which we are going to have to repeal later because they are in breach of the WTO agreement,” she added.
Committee member, Senator Dr Christopher Tufton, noted that some WTO rules are “quite controversial” and affect some countries more than they do others. “As it relates to facilitating trade, in specific product categories like agriculture, there are opinions that are poles apart, depending on whether you are from the developing world or the developed world,” he stated.
The Opposition senator said there was a concern that the legislation should be framed in a manner that does not allow agricultural products from the US, for example, that are not of the highest standard, to enter the local market and put farmers at a disadvantage.
But Francis contended that the trade facilitation rules do not prohibit local regulatory agencies from exercising their core functions and border control systems. “It just speaks to how you can in fact allow those things in through mechanisms that are now available, which allows Customs to be able to flag those things which are dangerous, so that you don’t spend time inspecting every single one, but use risk assessment to flag those things that are important, but allow the others to come in freely,” she explained. Jamaica has not yet ratified the most recent amendments to the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement which were adopted in November 2014.
