Description of Current Situation. Table III.1 (below) summarizes the alignment of Liberia to the specific TFA publication requirements. Policy and Legal Framework Liberia recently enacted a new Foreign Trade law that appears intended to provide the legal basis to ensure transparency of legal requirements related to foreign trade. 2 Under this new 2 The enacted version of this law was not available to us. The version referenced is draft No. 11, dated September 9, 2013, which was submitted to the WTO and obtained from the WTO Secretariat. law, the Minister of Commerce and Industry is obligated to make publicly available certain types of information - Box III.2 Foreign Trade law – Lists of Measures Required to be Published The Minister shall publish lists of- • prohibitions, quantitative restriction, quota, special charge, duty, levy, tax, condition, license, approval, permit or other requirement or measure imposed by Liberia that has a restrictive effect on Foreign Trade (“Restrictive Measures”) that are imposed from time to time under authority of the Foreign Trade law • all fees imposed under any law related to foreign trade • any prohibited goods • any quantitative restrictions imposed on exports and imports under authority of the Foreign Trade law • any goods for which a quota is established • any goods that require a license for import or export under the Foreign Trade law Source: Section 6, Foreign Trade law (Draft No. 11, September 9, 2013) In terms of the manner of publication, the new law requires the Minister to publish this information in the Official Gazette or in such a manner or by such means that will, in the Minister’s opinion, bring the information to the attention of interested parties. The Minister is required to provide a copy of any and all lists of information on request and without charge to any interested party. The draft Customs Code requires Customs to publish such information, including forms, notices and explanations, as may be necessary for persons to comply with the law. It further requires Customs to publish this information via the Internet where feasible (draft Customs Code, Section 1221). With regard to the Official Gazette, Liberia’s laws do appear to provide for such a publication. Under the Executive Law, the Bureau of Press and Publications in the Ministry of Information, Tourism and Cultural Affairs is responsible for the publication of a “Liberian Official Gazette,” while the Minister of Foreign Affairs is required to “oversee the publication of all pa...
Description of Current Situation. Policy and Legal Framework • Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Laws and Regulations The new Foreign Trade law requires the Minister to “publish in the Official Gazette or in such a manner or by such means that will, in the Minister’s opinion, bring to the attention of interested parties” any rules, regulations or guidelines that the Minister prescribes under the authority of that law at least 21 days prior to entry into force. It is further stated that interested persons may make written submissions regarding such rules, regulations or guidelines (Section 6.2, Foreign Trade Law). It is not clear from the text of the law if the intention is to provide stakeholders with a reasonable opportunity to comment on proposals (and such comments will be taken into account by the Ministry in developing the final rule, regulation or guideline) or if it is simply to provide stakeholders with advance notification. The rules, regulations or guidelines that are subject to this prior publication provision of Foreign Trade law are measures taken by the MoCI under the law such as the imposition of prohibitions, quantitative restrictions and quotas, import or export licenses, and fees imposed by the Minister. Rules or regulations of Customs, the Ministry of Agriculture or other border authorities under their respective enabling acts are not subject to this provision of the Foreign Trade law. At present, there do not appear to be any formal policy or legal measures that require such other border authorities to publish proposed laws and regulations for public comment. However, with respect to Customs, the draft Customs Code, if enacted, will require the LRA Commissioner General to provide persons with a reasonable opportunity to comment on any proposed rule or regulation implementing the provisions of the Code, and shall ensure any such rule or regulation is published not less than 30 days prior to entry into force, subject to exceptions consistent with the TFA measure (Section 1204, draft Customs Code). • Delayed Effective Date of New/Changed Laws and Regulations Except as discussed directly above in connection with the Foreign Trade law and the draft Customs Code, there are no legal provisions that require a period of time between publication of laws or regulations and their entry into force. It appears that in practice the date of entry into force of a particular law or regulation is defined in the law or regulation itself, and that the general practice appears to be that, w...
Description of Current Situation. Policy and Legal Framework There are no specific legal or policy measures that require Customs or other border authorities to notify of detention for inspection for their purposes. Procedures and Processes There do not appear to be any specific formal procedures (e.g., a SOP) that require Customs or other border agencies to notify importers or their agents when imported goods are detained for examination (e.g., no formal measures defining form, content, timing of such notifications) or other status of processing. However, as a matter of practice, with respect to those customs offices that have implemented ASYCUDA, declarants or their agents are informed by Customs that goods are detained for purposes of inspection via the ASYCUDA World System. In particular, when goods are selected for physical examination, the system will indicate to the declarant, or the agent that registered the declaration, that the goods have been placed in the “red channel”. In addition to the ASYCUDA message, we were advised that, at the Freeport, where goods are selected for examination, Customs also provides the declarant with a written “escort” form, which serves to alert the importer that the goods will be examined and that their presence is required to assist in examination. Figure III.14 "Escort" (Customs Examination) Form Used at Freeport Finally, we were advised by stakeholders that because many agents do not follow the status of declarations in ASYCUDA, information concerning the status of goods declared for importation is given verbally by Customs officers on request. Under Liberia’s PSI arrangements with BIVAC, physical destination inspection is mandated for a large number of transactions including, for example, all LCLs and all road freight. This notification of a mandatory destination inspection is published by BIVAC on its website. Importers of such goods would therefore be on notice that their goods will be detained for examination prior to importation (and must, in fact, schedule the inspection themselves). These classes of transactions subject to mandatory destination inspection are-
Description of Current Situation. Policy and Legal Framework Customs offenses and associated “civil penalties” are defined in Chapters 14 and 16 of the Revenue Code. These provisions define the offense, the penalty amount, and the person liable-
