The Challenges Of Customs In Export Trade Facilitation The Case Of Ethiopian Revenues And Customs Authority Dire Dawa Branch Office

Customs has been described for a century as a gate keeper, with customs authoritiesrnrepresenting a barrier through which international trade must pass. But currently Customs playsrna critical role in the implementation of a range of trade, economic and social policies andrncontributes to the achievement of national development objective focusing on trade facilitationrnand regulatory control. Trade facilitation and customs regulatory control regarded as two majorrnrequirements for both government and the business community in pursuing their national andrninternational trade in the competitive environment of today. However, enormous amount of timernand money wasted due to long delays at customs in most sub-Sahara African Countries likernEthiopia. The objective of this study was to identify the challenges of customs in export tradernfacilitation at Dire Dawa Customs Branch Office. To achieve the research objective, the studyrnemployed a descriptive method and used both qualitative and quantitative research approach.rnPrimary data were collected from all Customs employees found in export clearance team, andrnall exporters and customs clearing agents who have permanent office at the branch. Accordinglyrn85 questionnaires were distributed and interviews have made with purposively selected 3 teamrnleader, 2 process owners and 1 Deputy Branch manager. The collected data were analyzed usingrndescriptive statistics. Four major findings from the case study are identified as the key criteriarnrequired for facilitating international trade. First, risk management is identified as a corernprinciple of accommodating facilitation. Second, customs laws and regulations, customsrnprocedures and information technology are found to be key instruments for supporting thernachievement of trade facilitation. Third, comprehensive and integrated approaches torncooperation are regarded as enablers, which contribute to facilitation. Finally, human resourcerndevelopment is identified as a prerequisite to support all other elements in accommodating tradernfacilitation. The accommodation of trade facilitation can be achieved dependent on these keyrncriteria being effective and consistent with international standards and guidelines. Despite therneffort of the Dire Dawa Customs Branch Office to accommodate trade facilitation, the studyrnidentifies some discrepancies between ‘policy and implementation’ or ‘principles and practices’,rnparticularly in the areas of risk management, customs procedures and information technology.rnThese implementation problems are found to result mainly from the lack of skills and knowledgernof the customs officers. A key finding of the study is that continuous and sustainablerndevelopment of human resources in terms of customs competency is required to ensurerntransparency, consistency and predictability in providing customs services. Finally, thernchallenges of customs vary from branch to branch and even from one customs procedure tornanother depending on the nature of the branch as the study entirely delimited to study the issuesrnof Dire Dawa Customs Branch Office; it does not represent the scene in other Branch office andrnother customs procedures. Thus, further research needs to be conducted to address this customsrnchallenges in export trade facilitation.rnKey words: Customs Automation, Risk Management, Human Resource Development andrnManagement, Cooperation and Coordination among customs and other agencies, CustomsrnProcedures, Customs Laws and Regulations

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