Protocol of the fourth and fifth meetings of the Coordinating Committee on Facilitation of Trade Procedures
31.10.2018
Head of the Committee: Minister of economic development and trade - N. Hikmatullozoda
From 24 Members of the Committee, that was established by the Decree of the Government of Tajikistan (24 December 2016, №529) only 10 members participated, however other members without any excuse did not participate in the meeting (First Deputy Head of Customs Service, Ministries of finance; industry and new technologies, agriculture, health and social protection of population, State committee on investment and state property management, tax committee).
At the same time, from 12 representatives of the trade organizations and associations (Committee members) only 7 of them were present in the meeting, 5 members of the Committee (AIATT, Association of banks of Tajikistan, Association of financing organizations, Association of logistics of Tajikistan, Public organization of veterinaries of Tajikistan) did not participate in the meeting.
Moreover, representatives of International organizations and development partners participated in the meeting including ITC, UNDP, SECO, USAID, EU Delegation in Tajikistan and OSCE.
The list of participants is attached.
According to the agenda of the meeting 3 main topics were discussed:
1. Increasing the effectiveness of the Committee’s work
1.1. Presentation on the Committee’s completed tasks and establishment of the Permanent Secretariat of the Committee
1.2. Presentation on the Project of the Roadmap of the Committee
2. Results of analysis on improvement of implementation of the Republic of Tajikistan’s obligations under the WTO.
2.11Presentation on prioritization and sequencing of the A, B and C Categories measures of the TFA
3. Transit and international transport development
3.1 Presentation on the completed tasks of the Working Group on preparation of researches for international conventions and agreements in the transport and transit sectors and proposition of the Program on transport services development
3.2. Presentation on the transporters’ position for the terms of passage through the border checkpoints
3.3. Presentation on the working terms of the border checkpoints with the Republic of Uzbekistan
3.4. Presentation on implementation of the project “transport route: Uzbekistan – Tajikistan – China” in order to detect opportunities and transit benefits for the Republic of Tajikistan
Minister of economic development and trade – Head of the Committee, N. Hikmatullozoda has started the meeting by expressing gratitude to the Committee members and other participants.
It was noted that Committee’s work is under constant control of the President and the Government of the country in order to promote appropriate terms for the domestic and foreign trade. The Founder of Peace and National Unity – Leader of Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan H.E. Emomali Rahmon has underlined development of export of the country during his annual speech to the Parliament of the Country on 22 December 2017 and instructed the related ministries and agencies to take measures in order to increase exports, diversify exports, develop processing of agricultural goods, including cotton, fruits, vegetables, metals and precious stones.
Till this period on the basis of the protocol instructions of the Committee, number of tasks were completed and in order to further facilitate the work the Permanent Secretariat was established.
Head of the Committee noted, that establishment of the Committee will catalyze the implementation of strategic documents of the country including National Strategy on development of the Republic of Tajikistan for the period until 2030, Midterm Program on development of the Republic of Tajikistan for the period of 2016-2020, State Program on support of export and import substitution of the Republic of Tajikistan for the period of 2016-2020 and instructions of the Founder of Peace and National Unity - Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon.
After that the First Deputy Minister of the Economic Development and Trade Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin made a presentation on the first item of the agenda – completed tasks of the Committee and establishment of the Permanent Secretariat of the Comiittee.
He has noted that in collaboration with the members of the Committee, relevant ministries and agencies, development partners and the private sector 10 draft decrees of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan were developed, 5 were adopted, 1 is being reviewed by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan and 4 are under revision of the ministries and agencies.
To adhere the decisions of the Committee, 6 Working Groups on different issues were established.
The Action Plan for reduction of time and expenses of enterprises for export, import and transit of goods was developed and approved by the relevant Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan (31 May 2018, №286).
The Customs Service was appointed as a coordinating body for the transit actions (Decree of the Government of Tajikistan from 25 December 2017, #580).
Meanwhile, in order to timely publish normative legal acts on customs activities and to appoint responsible economic manager, amendments to the Customs Code have been prepared and circulated among ministries and agencies.
In order to support export and increase competitiveness of domestic products, the draft Law of the Republic of Tajikistan "On the Support of Export and Increasing Competitiveness" was developed and currently is under revision of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Furthermore, First Deputy Minister noted that with the aim to support Committee’s activities and it’s Working Groups, with the support of ITC and UNECE the permanent secretariat was established with a relevant order of the Ministry of economic development and trade. 3 people have qualified through the interview and now they are working in the mentioned secretariat.
Firs deputy minister made another presentation on the project of the Roadmap of the Committee and noted that this roadmap will assist in further work of the Committee.
During preparation of this project the obligations of the country within the WTO’s TFA and other strategic aims were taken into account. The project consists of 5 parts and 35 measures, that foresee reforms for the following aspects: improvement of trade procedures facilitation normative legal acts base; decrease of customs procedures; improvement of international transportation system; increase of domestic production; supply chain integration.
With a view of importance of this project, it was agreed to get comments and proposals of the Committee members in the period of 20 days. The project will be amended with the comments and proposals of the committee members, reviewed and approved during the next Committee meeting.
First deputy minister presented another presentation on Tajikistan’s obligations under the WTO’s TFA according to the categories A, B and C.
It was informed that, with the support of the ITC and SECO a National Seminar on “Prioritization, sequencing and strategizing the implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement” with participation of the Members of the Committee, representatives of the Private sector and development partners was held from 14 – 16 August 2016 in which the project of the Categories A, B and C measures and their implementation periods were prepared.
In the end, it was agreed to get comments and proposals of the Committee members on the project of the A, B and C Categories measures in the period of 10 days.
After that the third item of agenda on transit and transportation development was reviewed. It was noted that the Working Group on preparation of analysis on implementation of international conventions and agreements on transport and transit sectors is one of the most active Working Groups, which has already completed a number of tasks.
A presentation on completed tasks of the Working Group and proposition of the Program on development of transport services was presented by the first deputy minister of transport – Mirzoev Suhrob.
It was noted that implementation of the action plan of the project will lead to develop the transport services and support transformation of Tajikistan into transit country.
After the presentation of the project, discussions took place and the representative of the Ministry of foreign affairs proposed to include the air transport services in the action plan as well.
Head of the Committee has specially noted that, the National Development Strategy’s one of the main goals is to break in the communication deadlock and transformation into transit country. In this regard taking measures to achieve these goals is highly prioritized.
On the position of transporters on the terms of border checkpoint passage a presentation was shown by the representative of the private sector – Head of the Professional consultants union of Tajikistan, Kislyakova L. P.
This presentation contained the problems faced by the transporters, for example corruption elements at the border authorities.
On this matter the Head of Committee has given special instructions to related authorities and also obliged the Head of the Working Group on improvement of tariff and non-tariff tools to fully review the mentioned problem in the next meeting of the working group.
Moreover, the representative of the Customs services has given a presentation on the working terms of the border checkpoints with the Republic of Uzbekistan and noted that with the contribution of the Government the necessary measures are being taken in order to increase the services in the border checkpoints.
Head of the Committee proposed the customs service to work in the framework of the acting legislation of the country and deal with the current border checkpoints’ problems.
After that according to the agenda representative of the Ministry of transport has shown a presentation on “Transport route: Uzbekistan – Tajikistan - China” During the meeting discussions took place and members of the committee including Head of the committee, private sector representatives and the development partners shared their views on the agenda items.
At the end of the meeting Head of the Committee noted that the protocol of the meeting should be prepared and shared with the participants of the meeting.
The following decisions were made and included to the protocol of the meeting:
1. Protocol instructions should be under control of the Secretariat of the Committee;
2. Secretariat should send the projects of the Roadmap and the A, B and C Categories measures to the committee members and participants of the meeting;
3. Committee members and the participants of the meeting should send their comments and proposals on the project of the Roadmap both in electronic form and by official letter to the Committee’s secretariat in the period of 20 days;
4. Secretariat should change the project of the Roadmap by including the comments of the Committee members in order to review and approve it in the next meeting of the committee;
5. Committee members and the participants of the meeting should send their comments and proposals on the project of the A, B and C Categories measures both in electronic form and by official letter to the Committee’s secretariat in the period of 10 days;
6. Committee members and the participants of the meeting should send their reports on the implementation of the Action plan on getting the legislation of the country in line with the WTO’s TFA requirements, which was approved by the decision of the Committee in its second meeting (5 April 2017) to the Committee’s secretariat in the period of 10 days;
7. Customs service should send their reports on the implementation of the Action plan on getting the customs legislation of the country in line with the provisions of International convention on facilitationa and harmonization of the customs procedures (Revised Kyoto Convention), which was approved by the decision of the Committee in its second meeting (5 April 2017) to the Committee’s secretariat in the period of 10 days;
8. Ministry of transport by the end of 2018 with the support of the Committee members should send the Program on transport development for revision to the Government of the country after it has been reviewed by the relevant ministries and agencies;
9. Working Groups of the Committee should send reports on completed tasks to the secretariat of the Committee;
10. Head of the Working Group on improvement of tariff and non-tariff tools during the next meeting of the Working Group with participation of the representatives of the border control authorities should fully review the problems mentioned by the private sector and make a report in the next meeting of the committee;
11. Heads of the ministries and agencies, that are the members of the committee (Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, 24 December 2016, №529) should be warned that if they won’t participate in the next meetings of the Committee, relevant reports are going to be sent to the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Protocol of the fourth and fifth meetings of the Coordinating Committee on Facilitation of Trade Procedures
Dushanbe №4 and №5 « 29 » October 2018Head of the Committee: Minister of economic development and trade - N. Hikmatullozoda
From 24 Members of the Committee, that was established by the Decree of the Government of Tajikistan (24 December 2016, №529) only 10 members participated, however other members without any excuse did not participate in the meeting (First Deputy Head of Customs Service, Ministries of finance; industry and new technologies, agriculture, health and social protection of population, State committee on investment and state property management, tax committee).
At the same time, from 12 representatives of the trade organizations and associations (Committee members) only 7 of them were present in the meeting, 5 members of the Committee (AIATT, Association of banks of Tajikistan, Association of financing organizations, Association of logistics of Tajikistan, Public organization of veterinaries of Tajikistan) did not participate in the meeting.
Moreover, representatives of International organizations and development partners participated in the meeting including ITC, UNDP, SECO, USAID, EU Delegation in Tajikistan and OSCE.
The list of participants is attached.
According to the agenda of the meeting 3 main topics were discussed:
1. Increasing the effectiveness of the Committee’s work
1.1. Presentation on the Committee’s completed tasks and establishment of the Permanent Secretariat of the Committee
1.2. Presentation on the Project of the Roadmap of the Committee
2. Results of analysis on improvement of implementation of the Republic of Tajikistan’s obligations under the WTO.
2.11Presentation on prioritization and sequencing of the A, B and C Categories measures of the TFA
3. Transit and international transport development
3.1 Presentation on the completed tasks of the Working Group on preparation of researches for international conventions and agreements in the transport and transit sectors and proposition of the Program on transport services development
3.2. Presentation on the transporters’ position for the terms of passage through the border checkpoints
3.3. Presentation on the working terms of the border checkpoints with the Republic of Uzbekistan
3.4. Presentation on implementation of the project “transport route: Uzbekistan – Tajikistan – China” in order to detect opportunities and transit benefits for the Republic of Tajikistan
Minister of economic development and trade – Head of the Committee, N. Hikmatullozoda has started the meeting by expressing gratitude to the Committee members and other participants.
It was noted that Committee’s work is under constant control of the President and the Government of the country in order to promote appropriate terms for the domestic and foreign trade. The Founder of Peace and National Unity – Leader of Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan H.E. Emomali Rahmon has underlined development of export of the country during his annual speech to the Parliament of the Country on 22 December 2017 and instructed the related ministries and agencies to take measures in order to increase exports, diversify exports, develop processing of agricultural goods, including cotton, fruits, vegetables, metals and precious stones.
Till this period on the basis of the protocol instructions of the Committee, number of tasks were completed and in order to further facilitate the work the Permanent Secretariat was established.
Head of the Committee noted, that establishment of the Committee will catalyze the implementation of strategic documents of the country including National Strategy on development of the Republic of Tajikistan for the period until 2030, Midterm Program on development of the Republic of Tajikistan for the period of 2016-2020, State Program on support of export and import substitution of the Republic of Tajikistan for the period of 2016-2020 and instructions of the Founder of Peace and National Unity - Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon.
After that the First Deputy Minister of the Economic Development and Trade Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin made a presentation on the first item of the agenda – completed tasks of the Committee and establishment of the Permanent Secretariat of the Comiittee.
He has noted that in collaboration with the members of the Committee, relevant ministries and agencies, development partners and the private sector 10 draft decrees of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan were developed, 5 were adopted, 1 is being reviewed by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan and 4 are under revision of the ministries and agencies.
To adhere the decisions of the Committee, 6 Working Groups on different issues were established.
The Action Plan for reduction of time and expenses of enterprises for export, import and transit of goods was developed and approved by the relevant Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan (31 May 2018, №286).
The Customs Service was appointed as a coordinating body for the transit actions (Decree of the Government of Tajikistan from 25 December 2017, #580).
Meanwhile, in order to timely publish normative legal acts on customs activities and to appoint responsible economic manager, amendments to the Customs Code have been prepared and circulated among ministries and agencies.
In order to support export and increase competitiveness of domestic products, the draft Law of the Republic of Tajikistan "On the Support of Export and Increasing Competitiveness" was developed and currently is under revision of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Furthermore, First Deputy Minister noted that with the aim to support Committee’s activities and it’s Working Groups, with the support of ITC and UNECE the permanent secretariat was established with a relevant order of the Ministry of economic development and trade. 3 people have qualified through the interview and now they are working in the mentioned secretariat.
Firs deputy minister made another presentation on the project of the Roadmap of the Committee and noted that this roadmap will assist in further work of the Committee.
During preparation of this project the obligations of the country within the WTO’s TFA and other strategic aims were taken into account. The project consists of 5 parts and 35 measures, that foresee reforms for the following aspects: improvement of trade procedures facilitation normative legal acts base; decrease of customs procedures; improvement of international transportation system; increase of domestic production; supply chain integration.
With a view of importance of this project, it was agreed to get comments and proposals of the Committee members in the period of 20 days. The project will be amended with the comments and proposals of the committee members, reviewed and approved during the next Committee meeting.
First deputy minister presented another presentation on Tajikistan’s obligations under the WTO’s TFA according to the categories A, B and C.
It was informed that, with the support of the ITC and SECO a National Seminar on “Prioritization, sequencing and strategizing the implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement” with participation of the Members of the Committee, representatives of the Private sector and development partners was held from 14 – 16 August 2016 in which the project of the Categories A, B and C measures and their implementation periods were prepared.
In the end, it was agreed to get comments and proposals of the Committee members on the project of the A, B and C Categories measures in the period of 10 days.
After that the third item of agenda on transit and transportation development was reviewed. It was noted that the Working Group on preparation of analysis on implementation of international conventions and agreements on transport and transit sectors is one of the most active Working Groups, which has already completed a number of tasks.
A presentation on completed tasks of the Working Group and proposition of the Program on development of transport services was presented by the first deputy minister of transport – Mirzoev Suhrob.
It was noted that implementation of the action plan of the project will lead to develop the transport services and support transformation of Tajikistan into transit country.
After the presentation of the project, discussions took place and the representative of the Ministry of foreign affairs proposed to include the air transport services in the action plan as well.
Head of the Committee has specially noted that, the National Development Strategy’s one of the main goals is to break in the communication deadlock and transformation into transit country. In this regard taking measures to achieve these goals is highly prioritized.
On the position of transporters on the terms of border checkpoint passage a presentation was shown by the representative of the private sector – Head of the Professional consultants union of Tajikistan, Kislyakova L. P.
This presentation contained the problems faced by the transporters, for example corruption elements at the border authorities.
On this matter the Head of Committee has given special instructions to related authorities and also obliged the Head of the Working Group on improvement of tariff and non-tariff tools to fully review the mentioned problem in the next meeting of the working group.
Moreover, the representative of the Customs services has given a presentation on the working terms of the border checkpoints with the Republic of Uzbekistan and noted that with the contribution of the Government the necessary measures are being taken in order to increase the services in the border checkpoints.
Head of the Committee proposed the customs service to work in the framework of the acting legislation of the country and deal with the current border checkpoints’ problems.
After that according to the agenda representative of the Ministry of transport has shown a presentation on “Transport route: Uzbekistan – Tajikistan - China” During the meeting discussions took place and members of the committee including Head of the committee, private sector representatives and the development partners shared their views on the agenda items.
At the end of the meeting Head of the Committee noted that the protocol of the meeting should be prepared and shared with the participants of the meeting.
The following decisions were made and included to the protocol of the meeting:
1. Protocol instructions should be under control of the Secretariat of the Committee;
2. Secretariat should send the projects of the Roadmap and the A, B and C Categories measures to the committee members and participants of the meeting;
3. Committee members and the participants of the meeting should send their comments and proposals on the project of the Roadmap both in electronic form and by official letter to the Committee’s secretariat in the period of 20 days;
4. Secretariat should change the project of the Roadmap by including the comments of the Committee members in order to review and approve it in the next meeting of the committee;
5. Committee members and the participants of the meeting should send their comments and proposals on the project of the A, B and C Categories measures both in electronic form and by official letter to the Committee’s secretariat in the period of 10 days;
6. Committee members and the participants of the meeting should send their reports on the implementation of the Action plan on getting the legislation of the country in line with the WTO’s TFA requirements, which was approved by the decision of the Committee in its second meeting (5 April 2017) to the Committee’s secretariat in the period of 10 days;
7. Customs service should send their reports on the implementation of the Action plan on getting the customs legislation of the country in line with the provisions of International convention on facilitationa and harmonization of the customs procedures (Revised Kyoto Convention), which was approved by the decision of the Committee in its second meeting (5 April 2017) to the Committee’s secretariat in the period of 10 days;
8. Ministry of transport by the end of 2018 with the support of the Committee members should send the Program on transport development for revision to the Government of the country after it has been reviewed by the relevant ministries and agencies;
9. Working Groups of the Committee should send reports on completed tasks to the secretariat of the Committee;
10. Head of the Working Group on improvement of tariff and non-tariff tools during the next meeting of the Working Group with participation of the representatives of the border control authorities should fully review the problems mentioned by the private sector and make a report in the next meeting of the committee;
11. Heads of the ministries and agencies, that are the members of the committee (Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, 24 December 2016, №529) should be warned that if they won’t participate in the next meetings of the Committee, relevant reports are going to be sent to the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.