The authorities of the National Customs Service (SNA) of the Ministry of Finance met with their Central American counterparts on the occasion of the first of three rounds of Negotiation of the Central American Customs Union, to be organized by Costa Rica during the first half of 2017.
In addition, meetings of the directors of integration, technical customs, phytosanitary and health groups were held with the participation of representatives of the Secretariat of Central American Economic Integration (SIECA).
The purpose of these sessions is to address topics of regional interest, contemplated in the Plan of Action of the Presidency Pro Tempore of Costa Rica that includes adjustments to the Regional Declaration of the Traveler, Single Central American Declaration DUCA, Regulations for the International Customs Terrestrial Transit and an update of the Regional Customs Regulations.
This plan also includes a Central American Digital Commerce Platform and contingency plans and the proposals by the SNA: Application of a Regional Risk Methodology in the negotiation of a Mutual Recognition Agreement of Authorized Economic Operators, between the countries of the Region that have their program of authorized economic operators.
Therefore, the meetings of the customs technical groups carried out evaluations of the international traffic of goods, SIECA presented a report on the improvements made to the capture platform of the Central American Single Declaration (DUCA) -Transportation, the draft Declaration of the Traveler was revised, work was done on the contingency plan to guarantee electronic transmissions of data from the Central American Single Customs Form (FAUCA) and the Single Transit Declaration (DUT) and a report was presented by the Presidency Pro Tempore.
There are two more face-to-face meetings scheduled for this month, aswell as virtual meetings with the technical groups to follow-up important topics of interest to the region.
The proposal agreed by the participants in this meeting will be presented in March to the institutions of each country related to this draft declaration.
In addition, four of the six general managers undertook to review, through the coordinators of the OAS Programs, the proposal for a plan of action by Costa Rica with a view to negotiating a Mutual Recognition Agreement between Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama, to sign it in the second round of negotiations to be held in the last week of April.