Importing: customs, exemptions, documents and lead times

1The customs clearance procedure

On entering a country, all goods must be declared to customs, which check their nature, value, origin and tax regime. Typical steps:

• Before arrival: preparation of documents, request for an exemption or import authorisation, pre-declaration if the system allows it.
• On arrival: submission of the declaration by a customs broker (licensed clearing agent), with the documents.
• Inspection: documentary, and sometimes physical (green, orange or red channel depending on the risk analysis).
• Assessment and payment of duties and taxes, or application of the exemption.
• Release: authorisation to remove the goods; payment of port and storage charges.

Storage at the port becomes chargeable after a free period of a few days, and the demurrage charged by the shipping line for a container not returned adds up quickly: for example 75 USD per day per container after 10 free days.

2The documents

A complete import file generally includes:

• Commercial invoice (or pro forma invoice for donations, marked "no commercial value" with a value declared for customs).
• Detailed packing list.
• Transport document: bill of lading, air waybill or road waybill.
• Certificate of origin, sometimes required for preferential regimes or donor rules.
• Specific certificates: sanitary and phytosanitary (food, seeds), authorisation from the medicines regulatory authority, fumigation certificate (wooden pallets treated in accordance with the ISPM 15 standard), licences for telecommunications equipment.
• Exemption letter or decision and the organisation's registration document.

Half of customs clearance delays come from inconsistencies between documents: quantities, weights, descriptions or values that differ between the invoice, the packing list and the bill of lading. Check before shipment, not on arrival.

3Duties, taxes and customs value

The customs value is most often the CIF value (cost of the goods + insurance + freight to the border). Customs duties apply to this value; import VAT generally applies to the customs value plus duties.

Example. Goods 80,000 USD, freight 9,000, insurance 1,000: CIF value 90,000 USD. Customs duties 20%: 18,000. Miscellaneous fees 2% of the CIF value: 1,800. VAT base: 90,000 + 18,000 + 1,800 = 109,800; VAT 18%: 19,764. Total duties and taxes: 18,000 + 1,800 + 19,764 = 39,564 USD, i.e. 44% of the CIF value. A well-prepared exemption therefore represents a considerable saving, and the absence of an exemption must be provided for in the budget.

Most donors consider recoverable or avoidable duties and taxes to be ineligible: if the organisation could have obtained an exemption and did not request it, the cost remains its own.

4Exemptions and legal frameworks

Exemptions rest on several possible legal bases:

• Host country agreements or establishment agreements signed between the organisation and the government.
• International conventions: privileges and immunities of the United Nations; the revised Kyoto Convention (specific annex J5 on relief consignments); the Tampere Convention for emergency telecommunications equipment.
• National laws on NGOs, disasters or customs codes.
• The IDRL Guidelines (international disaster response law) of the International Federation, which encourage States to facilitate the entry of relief.

Useful practices: obtain and keep registration documents up to date; know which ministries sign (often the ministry responsible for NGOs, then finance); anticipate lead times (2 to 6 weeks per request in many countries); request the exemption before shipment; keep a register of items imported duty-free, because their subsequent disposal (sale of a vehicle, for example) triggers payment of the duties.

5Special regimes and items

Some items require specific attention:

• Medicines and medical devices: authorisation from the national regulatory authority, list of authorised medicines, minimum remaining shelf life (often 12 months or two thirds of the shelf life).
• Food: health certificates, compliance analysis, rules on GMOs in some countries.
• Telecommunications: radios, satellite phones, drones: import and usage licences.
• Dual-use goods or goods subject to export controls (certain electronic equipment, chemicals such as chlorine in large quantities, bulletproof vests): export licences from the country of origin and import licences from the country of destination.
• Vehicles: temporary or permanent import, number plates, conditions for resale.

Temporary admission makes it possible to import duty-free equipment that will be re-exported (for example an emergency team's equipment), against a guarantee or a re-export undertaking.

6Reducing lead times and costs

Proven levers:

• A qualified clearing agent selected through competitive bidding, with a framework agreement specifying its fees and prohibiting any unofficial payment.
• Document checks before shipment (checklist per country).
• Planning: submit exemption requests for an entire procurement plan rather than case by case.
• Coordination: in emergencies, the Logistics Cluster and the disaster management authorities often set up fast-track procedures or one-stop shops.
• Monitoring of storage and demurrage costs, with an alert before the free days run out.

Example of the cost of a delay. 6 containers held 18 days beyond the free period. Storage: 40 USD per container per day; demurrage: 75 USD per container per day. Cost: 6 × 18 × (40 + 75) = 12,420 USD, generally ineligible if they result from a documentation error.

"Facilitation payments" requested by an official to speed up a file are corruption: they are prohibited, even when small, even when presented as customary.