en
Co-funded by the European Union
Co-funded by the European Union
Location
Saint Lucia
Topic
Business Regulation and Policy, Public Private Dialogue
Status
Completed
Year
2022
The ICR Facility has received a request for support from the Ministry of Commerce, Manufacturing, Business Development, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs of Saint Lucia. Saint-Lucia is thoroughly committed to trade facilitation reform and modernization efforts. As part of its trade facilitation agenda, the country has identified the need to undertake a Time Release Study as a priority initiative, which would not only provide meaningful insights on the clearance of goods’ processes but also be a positive step towards the effective implementation of the trade logistics platform through customs clearance process mapping.
Saint Lucia embarked on the undertaking and completion of a Time Release Study (TRS) in 2022 as part of its endeavours to improve its trading environment as well as to meet its international obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade Facilitation (WTO TFA).
The objective of this intervention is to identify the steps and duration of goods clearance procedures in order to assist Saint Lucia in reforming its customs procedures through the development of a Time Release Study.
The establishment and publication of average release times not only enhances transparency on cross-border trade but also contributes to enhancing border management efficiencies and trade predictability.
The Time Release Study allows countries to measure the time taken by all involved stakeholders in the clearance of goods’ process to release cargo. The TRS undertaken at the Castries Seaport in Saint-Lucia focused its attention on the importation of all commodities, excepting personal effects importation, non-commercial petroleum products and ozone depletion linked commodities. In terms of the processes measured, the TRS concentrated its efforts on the Customs and Excise Department (CED) and Saint-Lucia Air and Sea Port Authority (SLASPA).
Besides providing the international and national trading community with the average clearance times at the Port of Castries, the TRS also enabled Saint-Lucia to undertake initial process mapping related to the Customs and Port clearance processes. This process mapping will prove useful for future business process optimization and digitization efforts such as the establishment of the planned Saint-Lucia National Single Window Platform.
Saint Lucia embarked on the undertaking and completion of a Time Release Study (TRS) in 2022 as part of its endeavours to improve its trading environment as well as to meet its international obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade Facilitation (WTO TFA). The Time Release Study allows countries to measure the time taken by all involved stakeholders in the clearance of goods’ process to release cargo.
The study was conducted at the Castries Seaport, the main commercial port of the country representing over 80% of the volume of importation and exportation.
Besides providing the international and national trading community with the average clearance times at the Port of Castries, the TRS also enabled Saint-Lucia to undertake initial process mapping related to the Customs and Port clearance processes. This process mapping will prove useful for future business process optimization and digitization efforts such as the establishment of the planned Saint-Lucia National Single Window Platform.
Since the end of the intervention, the Customs and Excise Department has started implementing some of the recommendations of the study, especially on the topic of risk management, the development of partnerships between public agencies and the private sector, and credit card payments. With the National Single Window Platform, all public agencies involved in the clearance of goods will have access to a platform where the submitter only submits the information once for all administrations.
“Yes, it definitely assisted us to identify problems and reforms to be carried out in terms of clearance of goods. We plan to do more TRS in the future and improve on them and make them better and involve more agencies. The first study was a starting point for us to build on”.
– Mr Rody Alcindor, Comptroller (Ag), Customs & Excise Department
