Committee for Arab rules of origin opens, Kuwait participates

CAIRO: The 13th meeting of the Technical Committee for Arab Rules of Origin began Tuesday, headed by Saudi Arabia and with the participation of Arab member states of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA), including the State of Kuwait. Chief of economic integration directorate at the League of Arab States, Dr Bahjat Abu Al-Nasser said in his opening statement that this assembly, which will be held over three days, will review the general requirements of the Arab rules of origin for Arab goods that will be completed based on observations of the Arab member states of GAFTA.

Kuwait is participating in the meeting with a delegation headed by the Deputy Director General of the Public Authority for Industry, Shamlan Al-Juhaidli, and includes the Director of the Industrial Development and Support Department at the Authority, Dr Abdullah Al-Hajri, and the Director of the Air Cargo Customs Department at the General Administration of Customs, Mutlaq Al-Anazi.

This issue is a “permanent item” on the agenda of the Technical Committee meetings until the final review of the requirements is completed, indicating that “the review of about 90 percent of the general requirements has been completed, and the remaining items will be discussed in preparation for submitting them to the Economic and Social Council to consider their adoption,” added Dr Abu Al-Nasser.

He elaborated that during the assembly, Egypt and Saudi Arabia will present their practical experience with the “certified exporter” system, based on the exchange of information and the sharing of best practical practices among Arab countries to maximize benefits from these experiences and closely identify the system and the advantages that will accrue to countries if it is implemented facilitating the movement of trade between Arab countries.

Dr Nasser explained that the “certified exporter” is a system that grants exporters who have the requirements stipulated in executive procedures to replace the issuance of permits of origin within the framework of preferential trade agreements, or with a commercial invoice or other commercial document, with an agreed-upon statement proving the preferential origin of the goods and granting this exporter with special codes, so that each approved source has its own code, and the commercial document containing the code of the approved source, is treated as a document proving its origin.