Economic customs regimes allow for the storage, processing, use, or movement of goods under suspension of customs duties, domestic consumption taxes, as well as any other economic duties, taxes, and prohibitions they may be subject to. They involve four (04) main functions:

• Circulation;
• Storage;
• Use;
• Processing.

Economic customs regimes are mechanisms designed to promote the development of certain economic activities (such as exports) and to establish the competitive capacities of businesses in the foreign market, thanks to the advantages they provide both financially and economically.

Financial benefits include:

• Suspension of duties and taxes;
• Duty and tax exemptions.

Economic benefits include:

• Cost-effective procurement of production inputs;
• Enhancement of businesses’ competitive capacities;
• Facilitation of international trade.

These regimes allow for the free circulation of goods, including:

• Placing goods under consumption;
• Reimportation in the same condition;
• Exportation for definitive purposes;
• Re-exportation.

Customs placement of goods:

• This allows customs services to identify, take charge of, and keep goods under their surveillance in customs zones (air, sea, and land) until clearance and removal.

Placing under consumption:

• Assigning a customs regime to imported goods to be in free circulation.

Establishment of the detailed declaration:

• All imported or re-imported goods, intended for export or re-export, must be subject to a detailed declaration by the declarant.
• The declarant is the person who declares to customs the imported or exported goods. They can be:
• The owner of the goods;
• The customs broker, who must be approved by the customs administration;
• The carrier itself, subject to authorization issued by the customs administration.
• The declarant can submit the detailed declaration remotely via the Customs Administration’s Automated Information and Management System (SIGAD), or at the main inspection office in the sections (IPS). They are responsible for declaring the following taxation elements:

Customs value;

• Tariff classification: Tariff classification of goods subject to global trade is governed by the Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (commonly referred to as the HS Convention) which entered into force on January 1, 1988.
• Origin: Once the declaration is validated, a declaration number is assigned to it, for submission to the IPS for validation and signature by the customs broker.

In line with the recommendations of the World Trade Organization to improve trade facilitation with more effective customs control, the customs administration has chosen to fully participate in promoting and developing the national economy by implementing a series of procedural measures aimed at facilitating customs procedures and improving the quality of controls by minimizing human intervention.

Customs facilitation measures include:

• Approved Economic Operator (AEO) (import or export) will benefit from the following:
• Reduction of customs clearance times;

Reduction of customs fees:

• As well as other facilitation measures such as:
• Green channel;
• Lodging of manifests before the arrival of the cargo;
• Simplified transit;
• Home clearance and on-site verification (for exports);
• Provisional declaration (estimated declaration);
• Binding Tariff Information (BTI);
• Sampling.