The Tribune

• Seeks ‘partial’ Click2Clear implementation

• Ends manual clearance; avoids legal woe

• Key meeting today for resolving differences

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Grand Bahama’s Chamber of Commerce president yesterday voiced optimism that “a compromise” can be reached via the partial implementation of Customs’ Click2Clear system prior to the September 1 target.

Gregory Laroda told Tribune Business he was “not going overboard and panicking” ahead of today’s key meeting between the private sector and Bahamas Customs, which is designed to iron out the issues and differences that have emerged over plans to finally introduce the Electronic Single Window (ESW) in Grand Bahama.

Backing the position taken by Glennett Fowler, president of the National Import Export Association of The Bahamas (NIEA), Mr Laroda said he wanted to assess whether it was technically feasible - and Customs’ willingness - to introduce Click2Clear early but without the so-called ‘free trade zone’ module that is causing so much concern for Freeport’s private sector.

Businesses fear that this module’s demand for monthly bonded goods sales reports from Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) licencees both breaches the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, Freeport’s founding treaty, as well as numerous Supreme Court judgments, Orders and injunctions which specifically forbid Customs from seeking this data.

Mr Laroda, though, said the ideal compromise was to implement Click2Clear absent the segment that demands bonded goods sales reports until these concerns were resolved. Introducing the rest of the system ahead of the target deadline, he added, would also prevent Freeport’s cross-border commerce from being slowed to a trickle over the next month-and-a-half by Customs reverting to manual clearance processes.

Customs says it has been forced back to such procedures because the present Electronic Customs Automated System (eCAS) has now been rendered “inoperable” and “beyond repair”. The GB Chamber chief said: “The persons directly involved in that field are concerned about having to do everything manual until then.

“We’re going to hear what they [Customs] have to say. Some of the persons in the field are saying to me we should be able to, or suggest, they implement Click2Clear without the part that is causing the most concern for the business community in terms of the reporting side, which seems to be tedious.”

Mr Laroda said Click2Clear “doesn’t seem to be set up for a free trade zone like Freeport” where persons are actually living within the zone, unlike Panama’s Colon free trade zone. Still, he added that the Grand Bahama private sector was not opposed to the new system, or Customs’ efforts to operate more efficiently while collecting all revenue due to the Government.

“We understand the Government needs to get better control,” the GB Chamber president said, “but we need to come up with a system that is mutually beneficial to everyone..... It’s how it marries with the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, and the issues around reporting of that, which are of concern to the business community, so we want to see if we can come up with a compromise over that.

“What we want to suggest is rather than wait until September 1, and doing manual clearance until then - there are some Customs officers themselves who are not familiar with manual clearance - and the challenges and delays with that, we want to see if we can compromise and implement part of Click2Clear and deal with the issues around the Hawksbill Creek Agreement before the full roll-out.

“We need to see exactly where they [Customs] sit with that, and what they’re willing to do, before I go overboard and panic. This meeting tomorrow [today] is an important one where we hope to come some sort of understanding around the roll-out of Click2Clear,” Mr Laroda continued.

“It’s not the business community saying no to Click2Clear. There’s some general understanding that it’s a necessary move, but as it relates to the Hawksbill Creek Agreement there are some issues that need to be investigated, and discussions that have to be had, but we don’t want this manual system until September. We want something before then that resolves the delays and increased cost the manual system is experiencing now.”

Freeport’s ‘over-the-counter’ bonded goods regime has been a key feature of the city’s business environment for almost three decades, and is now an established practice under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement.

It allows GBPA licensees to sell goods duty-free (bonded) to fellow companies within the Port area for use in the latter’s own business. But any sales to a consumer or household do attract duty, and these taxes have to be submitted in a report - together with the full tax owed - to Customs by the 15th of the following month.

While post-paid duty sales have to be reported, there have never been similar requirements for so-called ‘bonded’ sales reports, but the latter is exactly what Customs is seeking with the implementation of its Electronic Single Window (ESW) or Click2Clear platform in Grand Bahama even though this has been barred by a Supreme Court injunction.