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Item EAC Customs Valuation Manual: A Guide to the Customs Valuation of Imported Goods in the East African Community 2012(East Afrcia Community, 2012) EACThis Customs valuation manual is an EAC publication which sets out guidelines on operationalisation of the EAC Customs valuation provisions as set out in the EAC Customs Management Act, 2004 in order to determine the Customs values for ad valorem duty purposes of goods imported into the Community. The manual spells out in detail the application of the six methods of determining the customs value, procedures of administering the methods, procedure for treatment of adjustments and institutional framework for implementation of the Customs valuation. This manual has been developed to enable uniform interpretation and application of Customs valuation provisions in the Community. It is designed to assist Customs officers and other officers involved in Customs valuation of imported goods. The manual can be used both as an operational instrument and in training of Customs officers and other stakeholders. Periodical review will be done on the manual to ensure that it is consistent with any new changes in trade both at regional and international level for which the Community circumscribe to.Item Training Manual on Post Clearance Audit(Comesa, 2021-08) ComesaRealising divergences between national Customs laws and procedures that can hamper intra-COMESA trade and other intra-COMESA exchanges, the COMESA Member States considered simplification and harmonisation of Customs laws and procedures in order to effectively contribute to improvement of intra-COMESA trade and other intra-COMESA exchanges and were convinced that implementation of the provisions of Article 5 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, Article 70 of the COMESA Treaty and Regulation 151 of the COMESA Common Market Customs Management Regulations would lead progressively to a high degree of simplification and harmonisation of Customs procedures which is the object of Chapter Nine of the COMESA Treaty.Item WCO Guide to Customs Valuation and Transfer Pricing(World Customs Organization (WCO), 2018) World Customs Organization (WCO)This Guide concerns the relationship between Customs valuation and transfer pricing. It is designed primarily to assist Customs officials responsible for Customs valuation policy or who are conducting audits and controls on multi-national enterprises (MNEs). The 2018 Edition includes updates to reflect developments on transfer pricing at the OECD including the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project (Chapter 3), information on recent texts concluded by the Technical Committee on Customs Valuation (Chapter 4), updates to national initiatives (Annex I) and minor drafting changes. This Guide concerns the relationship between Customs valuation and transfer pricing. It is designed primarily to assist Customs officials responsible for Customs valuation policy or who are conducting audits and controls on multi-national enterprises (MNEs). It is also recommended reading for the private sector and tax administrations who have an interest in this topic. For Customs valuation purposes, import transactions between two distinct and legally separate entities of the same MNE group are treated as ‘related party transactions’. Such transactions may be examined by Customs to determine whether the price declared for the imported goods is ‘influenced’ by the relationship. In other words, is the price at which the goods have been sold at a lower level than it would have been had the parties not been related and the price had been freely negotiated.Item The Use of Mirror Data by Customs Administrations: From Principles to Practice(International Monetary Fund, 2023-09-26) Anne-Marie Geourjon; Bertrand Laporte; Gilles Montagnat-RentierThis note discusses the relevance of mirror data analysis for customs administrations and how these administrations can adjust this technique to their needs, particularly to support the customs risk management function. Based on IMF Fiscal Affairs Department’s capacity development experience in developing countries, it describes in detail the recommended steps to be followed to analyze the data, then advises on the operational utilization of obtained results.Item Customs Matters(International Monetary Fund, 2022-07-15) Augusto A Perez Azcarraga; Tadatsugu Matsudaira; Gilles Montagnat-Rentier; Janos Nagy; R. James ClarkCustoms administrations around the world face new challenges: an increasing volume of international trade, a revolution in new technologies, and fundamental changes in business models. The benefits of a well-performing customs administration are clear, as is the need to develop efficient, effective, fair, and modern customs administrations. Customs Matters analyzes the many changes and challenges customs administrations face and pro-poses ways to address them. By offering a cross-sectional view of the main aspects of customs ad-ministration, the book guides policymakers and customs officials as they evaluate the current state of their customs system with a view to developing, reinforcing, or relaunching their own roadmaps for customs modernization.Item Cordinated Border Management (CBM): an inclusive approach for connecting stakeholders(World Customs Organization, 2020-12-16) WCOThe latest version of the Coordinated Border Management (CBM) Compendium contains a number of new features and aims to comprehensively support Customs administrations, Cross-Border Regulatory Agencies (CBRAs) and international organizations in strengthening implementation of CBM in various fields. The concept of CBM has existed for many years and refers to a coordinated approach by border control agencies, both domestic and international, in the context of seeking greater efficiencies in managing trade and travel flows, while maintaining a balance with compliance requirements. The updated version of the Compendium briefly describes various WCO instruments and tools that are relevant to further supporting CBM implementation. Among these are the Revised Kyoto Convention, Risk Management, Single Window, the WCO Data Model and the SAFE Framework of Standards. It also recognizes that CBRAs are guided in their work by other international standards, and that it is necessary for both Customs and CBRAs to acquire a working knowledge of each other’s standards in order to arrive at a common understanding that enhances CBM. The Compendium also includes a new section on cooperation between the WCO and the UPU. This section sets out potential opportunities for cooperation between Customs administrations and designated postal operators, including the exchange of advance electronic data aimed at improving risk management, trade facilitation and control of postal items, particularly in the context of growing e-commerce via post. Furthermore, the updated Compendium includes (in Annex I) examples of CBM-related practice and experience in the context of two countries, namely, Botswana and Finland. There is scope for other examples to be added during the next review/update of the Compendium. The Customs-Police Cooperation Handbook, developed by the WCO and INTERPOL, has also been included in the Compendium (appended as Annex 2). The Handbook presents a clear approach for Customs administrations to assess their current level of efficiency and effectiveness in cooperating with their respective Police authorities, and encourages Customs administrations to explore avenues to further strengthen cooperation. Against this backdrop, the WCO stands ready to support its Members with the implementation of the updated version of the CBM Compendium, with a view to improving cross-border trade and ensuring the security of international supply chains.Item Trade in Value Added(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013) Mattoo, Aaditya; Wang, Zhi; Wei, Shang-JinThis volume includes papers that were first presented and discussed at a workshop on 'The Fragmentation of Global Production and Trade in Value- Added: Developing New Measures of Cross Border Trade', held at the World Bank in Washington, DC, on 9 to 10 June, 2011. This publication is structured as follows: chapter one gives and overview of measuring trade in value added when production is fragmented across countries. Chapter two discusses policy rationale and methodological challenges towards the measurement of trade in value-added terms. Chapter three highlights the importance of measuring trade in value added. Chapter four computes and analyses the value-added content of trade. Chapter five proposes an accounting framework for estimating the domestic and foreign content share in a country's exports when processing trade is prevalent. Chapter six provides estimates of foreign and domestic content in Mexico's manufacturing exports that take into account the import content in production under the maquiladora and Programa de Importacion Temporal para Producir Articulos de Exportacion (PITEX) programmes. Chapter seven gives empirical evidence that the standard gravity equation performs poorly by some measures when it is applied to bilateral flows where parts and components trade is important. It also provides a simple theoretical foundation for a modified gravity equation that is suited to explain trade where international supply chains are important. Chapter eight provides methodological guidelines on how to compute import coefficients at the level of the firm and shows how trade micro-data, can refine the aggregate nature of the indicators in input-output (IO) tables, by increasing their granularity. Chapter nine reviews the availability of underlying source data, summarizes the assumptions and describes the harmonization techniques used. Chapter ten gives three-stage reconciliation method to construct a time series international IO database. Chapter eleven gives direct measurement for collecting product- and firm-level statistics on value added and business function outsourcing and offshoring. Chapter twelve focuses on statistics and measures that are developed and used for defining and monitoring trade policy and economic development. Each chapter gives references at the end.Item The Role of Trade in Ending Poverty(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06-25) World Bank Group; World Trade OrganizationThe expansion of international trade has been essential to development and poverty reduction. Todays economy is unquestionable global. Trade as a proportion of global GDP has approximately doubled since 1975. Markets for goods and services have become increasingly integrated through a fall in trade barriers, with technology helping drive trade costs lower. But trade is not an end in itself. People measure the value of trade by the extent to which it delivers better livelihoods, through higher incomes, greater choice, and a more sustainable future, among other benefits. For the extreme poor living on less than $1.25 a day, the central value of trade is its potential to help transform their lives and those of their families. In this way, there is no doubt that the integration of global markets through trade openness has made a critical contribution to poverty reduction. The number of people living in extreme poverty around the world has fallen by around one billion since 1990. Without the growing participation of developing countries in international trade, and sustained efforts to lower barriers to the integration of markets, it is hard to see how this reduction could have been achieved.Item Trade and Transport Facilitation Assessment(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06-01) World BankTrade facilitation and logistics have become an important policy area in development. Supply chain constraints are now recognized as a major impediment to export led growth. The Trade and Transport Facilitation Assessment (TTFA) is a practical tool to identify the obstacles to the fluidity of trade supply chains. Taking the perspective of service delivery to traders, the TTFA assessment is founded on facts and data collected through a series of meetings and interviews with the main public and private participants to these international supply chains. They include customs and other border agencies, transport regulators, freight forwarders, transport operators, ports, and others. The toolkit helps design plans of action to improve logistics performance among its three main dimensions: infrastructure, services, and procedures and processes. This new edition of the toolkit provides an opportunity not only to reflect the changes in the trade environment and the need for additional features in the toolkit, but also to benefit from the experiences of the assessments already undertaken based on the original edition. In 2001, the Bank issued a first TTFA toolkit based on an original concept developed by John Raven. This initial concept was extensively revised to give the new toolkit an increased operational focus. The semantic change from audit to assessment also reflects the expansion in scope and the emphasis on development of implementable actions beyond the initial diagnosis.Item Making the Most of the African Continental Free Trade Area(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-06-30) Echandi, Roberto; Maliszewska, Maryla; Steenbergen, VictorThe creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provides a unique opportunity to boost growth, cut poverty, and reduce Africa’s dependence on the boom and-bust commodity cycle. A World Bank (2020) report estimates that the AfCFTA has the potential to raise income in the continent by 7 percent by 2035 and lift 40 million people out of extreme poverty, mainly by spurring intraregional trade (termed the “AfCFTA trade scenario” for purposes of this analysis). Reductions in nontariff barriers on goods and services and improvements in trade facilitation measures will account for about two thirds of the US$450 billion in potential income gains by removing long delays across most of the continent’s borders and lowering compliance costs in trade, making it easier for African businesses to become integrated into regional and global supply chains. This report builds on that earlier study by including potential gains arising from greater flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), termed the “AfCFTA FDI broadscenario,” and from deeper integration beyond trade, the “AfCFTA FDI deep scenario.” FDI has traditionally been low in Africa. The AfCFTA is likely to attract cross-border investment by eliminating tariff and nontariff barriers and replacing the existing patchwork of bilateral and regional trade deals with a single, unified market. Investors in any one of 55 member countries will have access to a continent of 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of US$3.4 trillion. Integration in global and regional value chains offers a further magnet for FDI and the jobs, investment, and know-how that FDI brings.Item The African Continental Free Trade Area(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-07-27) World BankThe African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement will create the largest free trade area in the world, measured by the number of countries participating. The pact will connect 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined GDP valued at $3.4 trillion. It has the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035. But achieving its full potential will depend on putting in place significant policy reforms and trade facilitation measures. The scope of the agreement is considerable. It will reduce tariffs among member countries and cover policy areas, such as trade facilitation and services, as well as regulatory measures, such as sanitary standards and technical barriers to trade. It will complement existing subregional economic communities and trade agreements by offering a continent-wide regulatory framework and by regulating policy areas—such as investment and intellectual property rights protection—that have not been covered in most subregional agreements. The African Continental Free Trade Area: Economic and Distributional Effects quantifies the long-term implications of the agreement for growth, trade, poverty reduction, and employment. Its analysis goes beyond that in previous studies that have largely focused on tariff and nontariff barriers in goods—by including the effects of services and trade facilitation measures, as well as the distributional impacts on poverty, employment, and wages of female and male workers. It is designed to guide policy makers as they develop and implement the extensive range of reforms needed to realize the substantial rewards that the agreement offers. The analysis shows that full implementation of AfCFTA could boost income by 7 percent, or nearly $450 billion, in 2014 prices and market exchange rates. The agreement would also significantly expand African trade—particularly intraregional trade in manufacturing. In addition, it would increase employment opportunities and wages for unskilled workers and help close the wage gap between men and women.Item Risk-Based Tax Audits(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-06-08) Khwaja, Munawer Sultan; Awasthi, Rajul; Loeprick, JanRevenue administration is a major interface between the state and its citizens. A good revenue administration is, therefore, an important attribute of good government. As a result, in recent years, policy makers have become increasingly aware of the importance of policies that will promote business development while ensuring voluntary tax compliance. In the modern context, it is neither desirable nor feasible to examine or inspect every single taxpayer. The revenue administration, therefore, has to rely on effective management of compliance. Promoting voluntary compliance, achieved through a self-assessment system in which taxpayers comply with their tax obligations without intervention from tax officials, requires developing modern approaches to audits based on risk management. The impact of audits critically depends on a properly designed audit selection strategy focused on high-risk taxpayers to provide the most cost-effective outcome. This, in itself, contributes to promoting voluntary compliance. Risk-based country audits: approaches and country experiences are an important study of this critical revenue function of compliance management.Item Protecting Mobile Money against Financial Crimes(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-02-24) Chatain, Pierre-Laurent; Zerzan, Andrew; Noor, Wameek; Dannaoui, Najah; de Koker, LouisThere has been significant discussion on the potential power of mobile-based technologies to provide unbanked populations with access to financial instruments and channels. Through the specific use of mobile money (m-money) services, for example, customers have accessed informational services, such as balance inquiries in their bank accounts, and transactional services, such as sending remittances to other people or paying for goods and services via their mobile phones. M-money has also been used by national governments to pay employee salaries and benefits. A key objective of this report is to discourage use of informal systems through the creation of a proportionate and not overly burdensome regulatory framework. Overly restrictive identification and verification processes in know-your-customer (KYC) policies, for example, may push users back to the informal financial system. The evolution of m-money in Africa and in non-African, low-income countries means that low-income and low-capacity countries are grappling with ways to ensure compliance with international Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) standards. Thus, this report also provides some indications of how the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards can be applied to low-income clients within an m-money context. It does this by presenting various country practices and experiences to enable policy makers to identify the most appropriate solutions for their countries' individual circumstances.Item Efficient Logistics(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014) Blancas, Luis C.; Isbell, John; Isbell, Monica; Tan, Hua Joo; Tao, WendyVietnam has achieved sustained economic growth, primarily driven by a rapidly expanding labor force and a shift in economic activity away from low-productivity subsistence agriculture toward the higher-productivity manufacturing and services sectors. However, the country's socioeconomic success is now facing both short- and long-term challenges. Over the longer term, Vietnam is faced with the challenge that its main drivers of past growth are being depleted and need to be replaced by intra-sectoral productivity improvements. More efficient transport and logistics can play a significant role in increasing productivity. Competitiveness enhancements can better position Vietnam to benefit from global demand, to better serve domestic markets, to attract investment, and to generate quality jobs. This publication highlights opportunities to make freight itineraries more reliable, to make roads safer and more conducive to high-volume commercial use, to increase port sector efficiencies, and to better integrate barges, trucks, warehouses, and gateways. It also proposes interventions and policies that can address both short-term and long-term challenges. This work is divided into four detailed chapters: 1) overview, 2) Vietnam's current situation, 3) freight stakeholder challenges and opportunities, and 4) issues screening and list of actionable recommendationsItem Border Management Modernization(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011) McLinden, Gerard; Fanta, Enrique; Widdowson, David; Doyle, TomThis book provides border management policymakers and reformers with a broad survey of key developments in and principles for improving trade facilitation through better border management, including practical advice on particular issues. In contrast to the traditional border management reform agenda, with its focus on improving customs operations, this book addresses both customs reform and areas well beyond customs-a significant broadening of scope. The book thus presents a new, more comprehensive approach to trade facilitation through border management reform: an approach that embraces a much wider, 'whole of government' perspective. The objective of this book is to summarize and provide guidance on what constitutes good practices in border management-looking beyond customs clearance. The contributions to the volume make clear that there are no simple or universally applicable solutions. Instead, the aim is to provide a range of general guidelines that can be used to better understand the complex border management environment and the interdependencies and interrelationships that collectively need to be addressed to secure meaningful change and improvement.Item Trade and Transport Corridor Management Toolkit(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-05-07) Kunaka, Charles; Carruthers, RobinTrade and transport corridors—major routes that facilitate the movement of people and goods between regions and between countries—have existed for millennia. They enable regions and countries to offer high-capacity transport systems and services that reduce trade and transport costs by creating economies of scale. Regional corridors are particularly important to landlocked countries, often providing the only overland routes to regional and international markets. Despite a long and complex history, guidance is often lacking on how to design, determine the components to include, and analyze the impact of corridor projects. The Trade and Transport Corridor Management Toolkit fills this void. The Toolkit synthesizes the experiences of the World Bank and other development agencies in assessing, designing, implementing, and evaluating the impact of trade and transport corridor projects. It saves project developers the task of looking for the best available tools and ensures greater consistency to facilitate comparison and benchmarking. The Toolkit will also be of immense value to policy makers in provincial and national governments as well as regional economic institutions, for several reasons: • Corridors affect the space economy of countries; they are best developed with clear estimates of the spatial impacts that can be expected. • A corridor system has multiple components, including infrastructure (roads, railways, ports), transport and logistics services, and regulations; it is important to appreciate the linkages between them, particularly as the overall performance of a corridor is determined by the weakest component. • Many parties with varying interests and motivations have a stake in corridor development. The Toolkit argues for their full participation in corridor development processes and operations. The best functioning modern corridors in the world did not happen by accident; they are often the results of coordinated development and cooperation over many years. The general principles outlined in this Toolkit should help project teams, government officials, logistics service providers, and the trade community to better appreciate both the importance of good corridor project design and the challenges of, and possibilities from, improving corridor performance.Item Deep Trade Agreements(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-07-12) Rocha, Nadia; Ruta, MicheleInternational economic integration offers unexploited opportunities to Latin America and the Caribbean. This report studies how the region’s countries can leverage trade agreements to promote their economies’ participation in global value chains (GVCs).The gaps between potential and actual GVC integration follow from the region’s Economic fundamentals, such as geography, market size, institutions, and factor endowments. But policy choices matter as well. The report, based on new data and evidence, shows that trade agreements can drive policy reforms and help the region overcome some of its disadvantageous fundamentals. The report makes specific policy recommendations to guide Latin American and Caribbean countries in leveraging trade agreements to pursue greater international integration and economic growth. Four main findings emerge from the analysis: (i) Latin America and the Caribbean’s poor international integration and limited participation in GVCs have contributed to its low economic growth over the past decade; (ii) Although the region’s countries increasingly participate in preferential trade agreements (PTAs), there are gaps in the content of these agreements; (iii) Deep trade agreements present an avenue to promote trade and boost GVC integration and upgrading, thus contributing to improved economic performance; (iv) Four areas of deep integration - trade facilitation, regulatory cooperation, services, and state support - are priorities to improve these countries’ GVC participation and upgrading.Item Customs Modernization Handbook(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005) De Wulf, Luc; Sokol, José BThis handbook aims to make a positive contribution to the efforts that many countries are undertaking to modernize their customs administrations. The handbook views a competent and well-organized customs service as one that successfully balances its various responsibilities to ensure a high level of compliance with revenue objectives and regulatory requirements while at the same time intervening as little as possible in the legitimate movement of goods and people across borders. The handbook recognizes that conditions differ greatly across countries, so that each customs administration will need to tailor its modernization efforts to national objectives, implementation capacities, and resource availability.Item The Effects of Adoption of Customs Electronic Procedures on Trade Facilitation by Clearing and Forwarding Agents in Nairobi, Kenya.(Kenya School of Revenue Administration, 2022-09-22) Lihanda, Brillian Adisa; Kilonzi, FelixThe study aimed at determining the impact of the adoption of customs electronic procedures by customs officers in Kenya. The research had three specific objectives which were; todetermine the effects of harmonization of customs electronic procedures on Trade facilitation by clearing and forwarding agents in Nairobi, to examine the automation of Customs Electronic procedures on Trade facilitation, to establish how the adoption of Cargo Information System on Customs Electronic procedures by customs officers, affects trade facilitation.. The overall objective of the study was to establish the effects of trade facilitation in Kenya. The research was anchored on the three theories namely; Technological change theory, Technological acceptance theory, and theory of reasoned action. The research employed a descriptive research design and had a target population of 892 officers in the clearing and forwarding firms within Nairobi. This research used structured questionnaires as a primary source of data. A pilot study was carried out on 20 officers that did not form part of the target population to test the reliability and validity of the research instrument. The study used Cronbach’s alpha (α) coefficient to test reliability, while the face and content validity were used for checking for validity of the research instrument. The primary data collected was analyzed with the use of SSPS version 28. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics by use of moderated multiple regression analysis. The study revealed that the harmonization of customs electronic procedures, automation of Customs Electronic procedures, and the adoption of cargo Information systems had a major influence on trade facilitation in Kenya. It was also discovered that harmonization of customs electronic procedures, automation of Customs Electronic procedures, and the adoption of cargo Information System had a variation of 93.5% on facilitation of trade implying that since the automation of the customs procedures by Customs administration has had a significant increase in revenue collection hence effective trade facilitation. This resulted in greater border control hence a significant growth in regional trade. There is a need for tight enforcement measures in the implementation of the new system to enhance growth in revenues by the customs administration. In conclusion, the adoption of electronic customs procedures requires an investment in technology, training, security enhancement, and management of hitches hence the adoption of these systems will facilitate trade growth in the region. Harmonization and adoption of electronic procedures regionally allow data sharing and competitiveness globally. The research recommends that it’s important for future researchers to undertake the same or replicate empirical studies in the harmonization of electronic customs procedures on the operational performance in East Africa to validate the findings and conclusions of this study. The study provides future researchers with a useful conceptual and methodological reference to carry out studies in this area of adoption of customs electronic proceduresItem Factors affecting adoption of green procurement practices in energy sector in Kenya(Kenya School of Revenue Administration, 2022-10-26) Felix, Kilonzi; Mwikali, Angeline MarthaThis study sought to determine factors affecting adoption of green procurement practices in energy sector in Kenya; a case study of Kenya Pipeline Company. The specific objectives were to investigate the effect of technological advancement, procurement policies, employee competencies, financial performance and operational cost on adoption of green procurement practices in energy sector in Kenya. The study will be of significance to the management of Kenya Pipeline Company, and other researchers. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population for the study was 300 employees of Kenya Pipeline Company, from which a sample size of 75 respondents was selected using stratified random sampling method. The instruments of data collection were questionnaires. The questionnaire comprised of both open ended and closed ended questions. The study findings were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods and presented in form of tables and figures. According to the findings of the study 87% of the respondents agreed that technology advancement affect adoption of green procurement practices in energy sector in Kenya while 13% disagreed, procurement policies by 84% while 16% disagreed, employee competencies by 89% while 11% disagreed, 83% of the respondents agreed that financial performance affects adoption of green procurement practices in energy sector in Kenya. Ninety-four percentage (94%) of the respondents agreed that operational cost affect adoption of green procurement practices in energy sector in Kenya while 6% disagreed. The study recommends the management should have their systems automated. In regard to procurement policies the study recommends the management to review legislations to ensure compliance with the international procurement systems requirement. In regard to employee competencies the study recommends that the management should employ professional trained procurement staff and continuously train the staff on emerging issues on public procurement practices. In regard to financial performance the study recommends that the management provide a good working environment for employees so as to enhance their efficiency and performance. In regard to operational costs the study recommends that the management should make use of automation so as to reduce their operational costs.