The Federal Board of Revenue has reviewed the progress on Pakistan's accession to international conventions on the International Customs Conventions including Temporary Importation of Commercial Road Vehicles (1956), Customs Convention on Containers, 1972, and Harmonisation of Frontier Controls of Goods (1982).
The national trade facilitation strategy was discussed during the last meeting of the National Trade Corridor Task Force Committee on Trade Facilitation, Ports Dwell Time and Ports Charges (NTC-TF) held at the FBR House. According to sources, a Working Group, constituted to examine/review Pakistan's accession to international conventions on Temporary Importation of Commercial Road Vehicles (1956), Customs Convention on Containers, 1972, and Harmonisation of Frontier Controls of Goods (1982) had convened two meetings at the FBR.
In the second meeting, Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed certain reservations on Pakistan's accession to these conventions and also sought some additional information for firming up its viewpoint on the matter relating to the said international customs conventions.
The representative of an international donor agency informed the FBR that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can be assisted in firming up its position by providing it with requisite facts and statistics through conducting a technical study and World Bank is ready to extend its assistance in this regard.
It has been decided that requisite information to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may be provided on priority basis within a period of four weeks. The Customs Convention on Containers grants temporary importation of containers to the contracting parties (countries) whether loaded with goods or not. The convention allows international transport of goods through a globally acceptable procedure specified by the United Nations.
These conventions are related to customs clearance and temporary importation procedures for containers etc under the Temporary Importation of Commercial Road Vehicles, Customs Convention on Containers and Harmonisation of Frontier Controls of Goods.