Dubai Customs receives a delegation representing Federal and Local government departments and organizations.

Summary: comprising of representatives from a number of Federal and Local organizations and departments including the Ministry of Environment and Water.

Dubai Customs receives a delegation representing Federal and Local government departments and organizations

Dubai -- Dubai Customs received 19th March 2009 a government delegation comprising of representatives from a number of Federal and Local organizations and departments including the Ministry of Environment and Water.

The visit, which comes as part of inter-government agencies coordination and exchange of expertise, aimed at learning about customs processes and procedures applicable to the importation of agricultural products, foodstuffs and pesticides as well as the electronic declaration clearance system (Mirsal 2).

The delegation was received by Mohammed Matter Al Mari, Executive Director of Cargo Operations Division, Abbas Makki, External Relations Director, Mohammed Al Muaini, Senior Manager of Customs Tariff and Origin and a number of senior staff from Tariff and Declarations Departments.

While welcoming the delegation, Al Mari underlined Dubai Customs` keenness to cooperate and liaise with all government organizations for the benefit of UAE and its citizens as well as different public and private institutions.

"Dubai Customs puts its cumulative expertise and advanced business systems at the disposal of any government agency whenever needed. Dubai Customs follows the latest locally and internationally recognized systems and processes, which accelerate customs clearing formalities without disturbing accurate inspection operations that aim at maintaining the country's social and economic security", Al Mari said.

"Dubai Customs is a regulatory agency that implements Federal and Local decisions in respect of prohibiting and restricting imported goods, which require a procedure. The Prohibition and restriction related database is consistently updated in line with the Federal decisions and local ordnances once they are received", he added.

The Federal Customs Authority (FCA) coordinated the visit where the visiting team included representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Water, Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, Dubai Central Laboratory, Food Control Laboratory at Sharjah Municipality and Foods Control Laboratory at Fujairah Municipality.

The visiting delegation was briefed by Customs Tariff Section on the current goods prohibition and restriction system and how agricultural products, foodstuffs and pesticides are processed in accordance with the unified tariff table.

The prohibition and restriction system is a fast and accurate module contributing to provide economic and social security requirements. It explains reasons for prohibition, restriction or the procedure required including the legal title thereof.

The system provides as well browsing methods, which facilitate checking all data entered by the declarant in terms of the HS Code, product classification, etc.

The system handles all types of pesticides and disinfectants with a great importance due to their effect upon public health and environment. Such products are either restricted or requiring a procedure.

Calling for organizing similar visits to Dubai Customs by Municipalities Central Laboratories and other government organizations, Engineer Abdullah Al Amiry, representative of Ministry of Environment and Water said: "This Federal Team seeks to produce an integrated system to detect pesticides remains within imported foodstuffs and those existing in the local market and ensure that they are within the international standards in a way protecting the consumers. Our visit comes within such context to learn about Dubai Customs systems and business programmes and benefiting from them in producing the required mechanism".

During the visit, expansive discussion took place on the procedures for testing samples of foodstuffs when entering customs borders and customs role in prohibiting them if not matching to the specifications based on the testing results provided by the Municipality offices located thereat.

Dubai Customs stated that the prohibition or restriction of agricultural pesticides and disinfectants depend upon the nature of the imported product and take place in collaboration with the competent authorities like the Ministry of Environment and Water and the Municipality.

Touring the Declarations department at the end of the visit, the delegation learned about the current service delivery standards and expressed their gratitude to Dubai Customs for the welcoming reception, preparing the visit and cooperation in providing the necessary information helpful for the federal team to complete its mission.

2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

2009 Al Bawaba (Albawaba.com)

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