General Customs announces the date of commencement of the unification of procedures and fee

Friday, February 8th

issued the General Administration of Customs, on Friday, a special statement on the application of the Council of Ministers Resolution No. (13) for the year 2019 concerning the unification of customs procedures and charges at the level of all border crossings, pointing out that the direct unification of procedures and fees with the Kurdistan region , the date will be starting on 17 This month. 

The Authority said in a statement received by Alsumaria News, a copy of it, "The General Authority of Customs and Federal Customs of the Kurdistan region will begin to implement the resolution as of Sunday, 17 February 2019, which is considered an important step to regulate trade and import and export activities," noting that " Customs tariff at all border crossings, including the ports of the Kurdistan region (Pervez Khan, Bashmakh, Ibrahim Khalil, Haj Omran, Erbil airport, Sulaymaniyah airport).




The decision also included "the adoption of a unified customs declaration (customs declaration) in Arabic and Kurdish according to the customs law," stressing that "all border ports in the provinces and the region comply with the decisions issued by the Council of Ministers on the protection of national product and agricultural calendar." 

The decision referred to "the commitment of all border ports in the provinces and the region to implement their part in the international agreements signed between the Republic of Iraq and other countries, especially with regard to customs exemption, and the abolition of the Council of Ministers Resolution No. (186) for the year 2018 on the clearance of containers on the volume of containers and return To the contexts adopted in accordance with the law. " 

The Commission also said that the decision also included "the abolition of the current customs points in both (Fayda) (Shiroh - north of Kirkuk) and (Lilan - east of Kirkuk)."

The Commission affirms that "the decision came to support the private sector through the realization of the principle of fairness in the imposition of fees and to encourage competition between companies on the basis of quality and services in the light of the equal costs among all with the offer that the decision included a significant reduction in imports and the proportion of customs duties of imported goods and goods and the adoption of Unified importation ".




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Very good!!!!!! Another step in the right direction

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Urgent Customs starts to standardize tariffs and procedures with the Kurdistan region as of February 17

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[rtl]Date of release: 2019/2/8 10:50 • 224 times read[/rtl]

This shows they are getting along with the Kurds... Hopefully. And a date...

New tariffs, cement import ban hit Kurdistan’s trade with Iran

By [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 5 hours ago
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Iraqi and Iranian flags fly at the Parviz-Khan border crossing between Iran and the Kurdistan Region. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) introduced dozens of new tariffs, mainly targeting dairy products, and banned cement imports as it brings its customs policy in line with federal standards. The new measures will hit imports from Iran and local producers are hoping they’ll see a boost in business as a result. 


“We have received [tariffs] for 79 various goods,” Ali Tofiq, head of the Parviz-Khan border crossing between Sulaimani province and Iran, told Rudaw. 


Further north, at the Haji Omran crossing between Erbil province and Iran, Masoud Bateli, head of the border post, said they have also received 79 new tariffs as “all Kurdistan has one system.”


Earlier this year, Erbil and Baghdad reached an [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]to unify their customs policies. The Iraqi government sought to exert federal control over the international borders that lie within Kurdistan Region’s boundaries after the independence referendum of 2017. The deal reached after months of negotiations required Iraq abolish internal customs points that had been extorting tariffs on Kurdish-made and imported goods being transported from the Kurdistan Region to the rest of Iraq and Erbil agreed to follow Baghdad’s instructions at its borders with Iran and Turkey. 


The purpose of the tariffs is to “preserve local products,” said Samal Abdulrahman, head of KRG customs. “They were issued earlier by Baghdad but we had not implemented them. We have decided to implement them from May 1.”


Sulaimani’s dairy producers are hopeful they’ll see increased business with the new charges. 


There are 34 small and medium factories in the Kurdistan Region producing 2,500 tons of ice cream and other dairy products, according to Hiwa Mohammed, owner of Chyaw company and representative of the Region’s dairy producers.  Only 600 tons of what is produced in the Region is sent to local markets. The rest is sold to Iraq, he said. 


Iran, which has a strong dairy industry, had hoped the sector would survive US sanctions on the country and act as a source of stability for the economy. “We export milk products worth $800 million annually – mostly to neighbouring countries,” Mir Islam Teirmouri, chairman of Iran’s dairy board, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Hindu BusinessLine last year when Washington announced it was withdrawing from the nuclear deal and would re-impose sanctions. 


Less than a week after the new tariffs came into force, the effects are noticeable. 


“Iranian products like yogurt are about to be hard to find in the markets. Those available are the stored ones,” Kanaan Adnan, a vendor in Sulaimani, told Rudaw. 


Ban on cement


As of May 1, Baghdad and Erbil have also banned imports of cement, said head of KRG customs Samal Abdulrahman. 


Kurdistan Region is a major producer of cement. Most of its product gets sent to Iraq, especially the war-torn city of Mosul. The Region’s cement producers had to compete with Iranian imports, which were cheaper. 


Rebin Kamal owns a cement factory in Sulaimani. He told Rudaw that Iranian cement is a threat to locally made product, "Because it is cheap. It costs them about $16-17 until it reaches our borders… while it costs local manufacturers about $38-40 to produce a ton."


Iraq and Kurdistan Region produce more cement than is needed domestically, so “there is no point in importing it,” he added. 


Producers in Sulaimani province make about 15 million tons annually. “There are five cement factories in Sulaimani which used to produce 40,000 tons a day but due to the [financial] crisis and imports their production dropped by 50 percent,” said Mohammed Jabar, head of industrial development in Sulaimani. 


“We take cement to Mosul every day,” he said. They also sell to Basra, Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Fallujah, Ramadi, and export to Syria.


He hopes the ban on cement imports will “improve our business.”


Kurdistan and Iraq share several border crossings with Iran along their nearly 1,500-kilometre-long border, with annual trade volume standing at $12 billion. Tehran and Baghdad want to increase that trade to $20 billion, despite pressure from Washington for Iraq to limit its ties with Iran and comply with US sanctions. 


The KRG’s representative to Tehran recently said that Erbil will find it hard to cut its close business ties with Iran. “We ask that both Iran and America be understanding,” [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Nazim Dabagh. “We have to take into consideration our geography.”

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Thanks  Proven