Publication: Trade Facilitation in the Caribbean : The Case of Customs Performance
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Date
2013-06
ISSN
Published
2013-06
Author(s)
Ossio, Jose Eduardo Gutierrez
Alessandro, Martin
Neyra, Juan Jose
Abstract
The trade of goods and services and the
inflows from Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) represent
large proportions of their Gross Domestic Products (GDP),
especially in English Speaking Caribbean (ESC) countries.
Therefore, the proper functioning of the channels that
connect them to the rest of the world, including customs
offices, is essential to the performance of their economies.
This note shows that, despite integration into the world
economy, customs performance in the Caribbean countries is
comparatively low. This note presents data from the Customs
Assessment Trade Toolkit (CATT), which provides empirical
evidence that processes do not meet adequate standards in
terms of speed, predictability and transparency. This
inconsistency is partially explained by the lack of an
effective complementarity between the use of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) systems and the actual
operational practices. This policy note is organized as
follows: section three presents evidence on the economic
profile of the Caribbean countries to show high integration
to the world economy. Trade and FDI are they key aspects
being considered in this regard. Section four discusses the
role of customs systems for economic development. It
analyzes the performance of the Caribbean customs offices in
a number of aspects (clearance times, predictability, and
transparency) that the literature has identified as critical
to promote competitiveness and development. Section five
expands this analysis by focusing on how the use of ICT can
improve customs performance in those aspects. Section six
summarizes the lessons learned by the analysis of these
data. Finally, the conclusions section presents some policy
recommendations to deal with the inconsistency between high
economic openness and low customs performance in the
Caribbean countries.
Citation
“Ossio, Jose Eduardo Gutierrez; Alessandro, Martin; Neyra, Juan Jose. 2013. Trade Facilitation in the Caribbean : The Case of Customs Performance; Facilitación del Comercio en el Caribe : el caso de las aduanas y su desempeno. Caribbean knowledge series;no. 3. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/16620 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”