Protocol of the 7th meeting of the CCFTP
Protocol of the 7th meeting of the CCFTP
Dushanbe №7 29 May 2019
Chairperson: Minister of the economic development and trade – N. Hikmatullozoda
The Members of CCFTP participated in the Meeting. In addition, development partners representatives, including ITC, UNDP, OSCE and IFC also participated in the Meeting.
According to the agenda of the meeting 3 items were discussed, including:
1. Report of the executive secretary of the CCFTP on implementation of the protocol instructions in 2018;
2. Challenges of the Private sector and given tax preferences in textile and clothing sector;
3. Acknowledgement of the RT certificates in other countries and reduction of list of products that are mandatorily being certificated.
Minister of economic development and trade – Chairperson of the CCFTP has stated the meeting and noted that the Founder of Peace and National Unity – Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, H. E. Emomali Rahmon has given detailed instructions on providing favourable conditions for domestic producers and elimination of barriers for trade and services sector during the meetings of the Government of RT.
On 10th May 2019, a meeting of the Leader of the Nation and representatives of the finance, banking, tax, customs and investments sectors was conducted and relevant instructions on elimination of the existing problems were given. The CCFTP’s responsibility also includes elimination of the mentioned issues, including development of the new Tax Code.
During the meeting the executive secretary of the CCFTP has made a presentation on implementation of the 2018’s protocol instructions and noted that those instructions included implementation of the Roadmap of CCFTP, Categorization of TFA obligations, activation of the Tajikistan Trade Portal, implementation of the action plan on getting the legislation of the RT in line with TFA provisions, approval of the Program on development of transport services and selection of the new CCFTP Members from the number of representatives of the private sector.
CCFTP has validated the list of new CCFTP Members from the number of representatives of the private sector including the Union of Professional Consultants of Tajikistan and the Union of Private Sector Development.
Representative of the Union of Private Sector Development (UPSD) Mr. Muhammadiev Abdullo has made a presentation on challenges faced by the producers of textile and clothing sector. He has noted that these sectors face challenges on unhealthy competition brought by smuggling of uncertified and low quality products to the country.
Chair of the CCFTP added that during the meeting on 10th May, Leader of the Nation has given relevant instruction to the relevant border working agencies on elimination of smugglings to the country, provision of accurate statistics, proper customs and transportation procedures.
In addition, a representative of the Tax Committee has made a presentation on given preferences to the textile and clothing sector and its profits.
Head of the CCFTP noted that, currently an order on exemption from the VAT and customs duties of the raw materials that are not being produced in the territory of Tajikistan has been prepared and this document will ease some of the challenges of the producers of textile and clothing.
In addition, representative of UPSD has proposed to establish a Fund on support of the development of the textile industry under the Government of RT.
Furthermore, a representative of the LLC Lesinvest has made presentation on the challenges faced by the company. It was noted that the company is the only importer of the Red Bull in the country. Currently the company faces a lot of problems including smuggling of the Red Bull to the country and increasing the import customs duties for the energy drink. According to the new decree of the Government of RT “On import customs duties” Red Bull has customs duty of 20% but not less than 0,12 Euros for 1 Litre, which is relatively higher than it was before (0,07 Euros for 1 Litre).
Head of the CCFTP has given instruction to the WG on improvement of tariff and non-tariff measures to fully review this issue and report to the Secretariat on its results.
Representative of the Customs Service has noted their readiness to review the challenges of the company in accordance with legislation of the RT.
Next, a representative of Tajikstandart and Committee on Food Safety presented their reports on acknowledgement of the RT’s certificates in other countries.
It was noted that RT’s certificates are being acknowledged in accordance with the intergovernmental agreements, including the CIS Agreement from 13 March 1992. Also a report on reduction of list of mandatorily certificated products was presented to the participants.
Head of the Committee noted that more than 2500 of RT’s products are being mandatorily certificated which almost twice more than other countries.
Moreover, Head of the CCFTP noted that in order to implement requirements of the Law of RT “On foreign economic activity” and the 1 part, 2 paragraph of the action plan of Program of adjustment of economy of RT related to the WTO accession (31 October 2014, #691) a WG headed by the MEDT, with participation of specialists of ministries and agencies for development of normative legal act on implementation of special safeguard, antidumping and countervailing measures for the 3rd countries should be established.
Furthermore, he has noted that in order to simplify the import and export procedures of products a WG with participation of specialists of ministries and agencies for improvement of Tajikistan Trade Portal should be established.
Head of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Dushanbe noted that there are many opportunities for the development of the textile industry and SECO is ready to cooperate in this direction when a detailed project will be presented.
In addition, a representative of IFC has noted that currently a new project is being developed and it could provide new sources of financing for domestic producers and exporters.
Head of the Association of Customs brokers has noted her concern about challenges faced by the foreign economic participants’ during transportation of goods. She has also proposed to take into account the comments and proposals of the private sector during development of the Tax Code.
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 the following decisions should be included to the protocol of the meeting:
1. Protocol instructions’ execution should be monitored by the Secretariat of the Committee;
2. Customs Service should send for revision of the Government of RT the draft Law on amendments to the Customs Code by the end of the second half of 2019;
3. Customs Service and Ministry of Transport should conduct import customs procedures in accordance with the destination of product and where the importer wants to complete the procedure. In addition a report on challenges should be presented to the CCFTP Secretariat;
4. Ministry of Transport should send for revision of Government of RT the Program on Transport Services development in the shortest period of time;
5. WG on improvement of tariff and non-tariff measures should completely revise the issue of the LLC Lesinvest and present a report to the Secretariat;
6. Committee on Food Safety and Tajikstandart should monitor the acknowledgement of the local certificates by other countries in accordance with intergovernmental agreements and present a report on this issue to the Secretariat of the CCFTP;
7. Within 3 months, Tajikstandart should prepare, get approval of ministries and agencies and send for revision of Government of RT a project of decree of the Government of RT “on amending the decree of Government of RT from 18 June 2012, #310 “ On the list of products that should be certificated mandatorily””;
8. Association of customs brokers of RT shall send a request to Ministry of Finance to join private sector in the development of the project of Tax Code;
9. A WG with participation of specialists of ministries and agencies for revision of textile and clothing sector challenges should be established;
10. In order to implement requirements of the Law of RT “On foreign economic activity” and the 1 part, 2 paragraph of the action plan of Program of adjustment of economy of RT related to the WTO accession (31 October 2014, #691) a WG with participation of specialists of ministries and agencies for development of normative legal act on implementation of special safeguard, antidumping and countervailing measures for the 3rd countries should be established;
11. In order to simplify the import and export procedures of products a WG with participation of specialists of ministries and agencies for improvement of Tajikistan Trade Portal should be established;
12. This protocol should be sent to the Members of the CCFTP, relevant ministries and agencies and private sector for revision and implementation of relevant instructions.