Protocol of the sixth meeting of the Coordinating Committee on Facilitation of Trade Procedures
Protocol of the sixth meeting of the Coordinating Committee on Facilitation of Trade Procedures
Protocol of the sixth meeting of the Coordinating Committee on Facilitation of Trade Procedures
Dushanbe №6 «21» December 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 19 members participated, however other members without any excuse did not participate in the meeting.
At the same time, from 12 representatives of the trade organizations and associations (Committee members) only 6 of them were present in the meeting, 6 members of the Committee did not participate in the meeting.
Moreover, representatives of International organizations and development partners participated in the meeting including ITC, UNDP, SECO, USAID, ADB, 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. Results and actions of the permanent Working Group of experts on improvement of tariff and non-tariff tools for support of domestic producers and export development
2. Tajikistan trade facilitation information portal.
3. Report of ministries and agencies on the execution of orders of the 4th and 5th meetings of the CCFTP.
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 the activities of the Committee will lead to implementation of the strategic documents including National Development Strategy of the Republic of Tajikistan for the period until 2030 and the National program on support of export and import substitution for the periods of 2016-2020 in order to facilitate trade procedures and increase export.
In addition, the Head of the Committee noted that the issue of bringing the favourable terms for foreign and domestic trade was addressed during the annual speech of the Founder of Peace and National Unity – Leader of Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan H.E. Emomali Rahmon to the Parliament of the Country on 22 December 2017.
The First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and trade presented a presentation on the 1st item of the meeting’s agenda (Results and actions of the permanent Working Group of experts on improvement of tariff and non-tariff tools for support of domestic producers and export development).
He has noted that the Working Group already held 8 meetings, reviewed more than 44 types of products and relevant decisions for supporting domestic producers were made.
In addition, 109 suggestions from the private sector were prepared and 137-page report with the request of implementation of the given suggestions was sent to the Government of the country.
Moreover, in the framework of the WG’s activities a number of significant tasks were completed:
- Project of the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan «On import customs duty rates of the Republic of Tajikistan» was developed and approved from 8 August 2018, №399
- Project of the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan «On amendments to the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan from 9 June 2018, №302» was developed and approved from 6 August 2018, №397
- 3 business entities have been supported by the amount of 15.3 mln TJS in order to establish and rehabilitate bird keeping entities
On the 2nd item of the agenda the National consultant on development of the national trade facilitation Portal presented a presentation on the structure, usage and other aspects of the mentioned Portal.
It was noted that with the support of the ITC and other International Organizations the Portal was developed and it will assist and facilitate the export, import and transit procedures.
Furthermore, the data in the Portal was approved by the relevant ministries and agencies. Portal will also help to reduce unnecessary procedures and irrelevant payments.
The Head of the IT and communication centre of the Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan (Mirzoyon Nodir Ramazoni) suggested to get the Portal in line with the requirements of the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan from 10 July 2017, №344.
Also a representative of the National legislation centre suggested that the name of the Portal should be approved by the Committee of language under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.
After that the Head of the Committee noted that the during the previous meetings of the committee the categorization of the Tajikistan’s TFA obligations were reviewed and sent to the Members of the Committee for further comments and suggestions. Members did not have any suggestions and the A, B and C categories obligations were approved. Head of the committee also instructed the executive secretary to send the A, B and C categories obligations via notification to the WTO Secretariat.
In addition, Head of the committee also reminded that the Roadmap of the committee also was reviewed and sent to the committee members for their suggestions. The Roadmap was changed with the view of Members’ suggestions and would be sent for the revision of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, according to the agenda, the First Deputy Head of the Customs Service Tursunzoda A. H. presented a presentation on progress of implementation of action Plan in order to bring the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan in line with the requirements of the International Convention on the simplification and harmonization of Customs procedures (Revised Kyoto Convention).
After that Members of the Committee presented their reports on the implementation of the Action Plan in order to bring the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan in line with the requirements of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.
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’ execution should be under monitoring of the Secretariat of the Committee;
2. Action plan of the A, B and C Categories obligations is approved and should be sent to the Secretariat of the WTO via notification;
3. Project of the Roadmap of the Committee should be sent to the Government of the country for their review;
4. Working Groups of the Committee should send reports on completed tasks to the secretariat of the Committee;
5. Working Group on improvement of tariff and non-tariff tools should take necessary measures in order to implement its’ protocol instructions and in this order support domestic producers and increase export;
6. Members of the committee should take necessary measures in order to fully implement the action plan on the compliance of the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan with the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement;
7. Head of the WTO Affairs Department – the Executive Secretary (Abdurahmonov A.) should organize a meeting with the representatives of the Private sector in order to prepare a list of the new Members of the Committee from the number of Private sector representatives, which is going to be approved in the next meeting of the Committee;
8. 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.