Responsible Entities

  • There was no list of goods exempted from the documented certification requirement and dealing with the collection documents system, which was issued to facilitate manufacturers work and to provide the needs of the industrial facilities with regard to raw materials and production requirements.

Responsible Entities

Date 10/5/2022

Obstacles of working with the MTS on the window system in different ports that lead to a gap in the application and complicating the customs release system:

  • No availability of adding, copying, or merging lines on the system.
  • No availability to delete any supplying order or deleting invoices in case it was uploaded on the system by mistake.
  • Several reports are not available, that include (laboratory rejected messages report, expired messages report, not yet paid).
  • Delay in updating the authority’s fees on the window system, forcing the fees to be calculated manually by the financial auditor.
  • In the case of a finished certificate for customs, there is no possibility to work on the food safety request, for technical support, and vice versa in the case of a request that has completed the procedures for food safety and there is an error in the customs classification, the request is released from the beginning. 
  • The execution and partial reexporting document can issue the quantity and weight mistakenly.
  • Delay in sending the original message in some cases that is ostensibly acceptable and practically/laboratory acceptable which leads to delaying the person of concern in case the lab rejects the message and the system is already full with appeals. Hence, no original document is issued which leads to a delay. 
  • No notification or warning showing up on the screen in case a reexamination takes place in the review department.
  • Lack of guidance from MTS officials to recognize pre-inspection certificates (ILAC) on the window.
  • Some reports that were available on the system with the original documents have been closed or disappeared, such as, but not limited to:
    • Samples with no results for more than three days (unavailable)
    • Food inspection requests for a certified ostensible examination and there were no regulatory certified results (inactive)
    • Examination requests/applications that are supposed to be received (inactive)
    • Monitoring the food imports (inaccurate)
    • Monitoring collected invoices (inactive)
  • When browsing some reports, the phrase shows ‘’Cannot view the required documents’’.
  • There are some reports to be initially added that are:
    • A statement of the messages that have the conformity.
    • Total numbers of certificates of conformity.
    • Follow-up requests for inspection of food imports.
    • A statement of the letters that have been notified of rejection.
    • Request for an appeal.
    • Statement for the messages that are under the decision ‘’under reservation’’
  • The risk system has stopped for a long time, the latter defines the risk level for the items and determines the withdrawal ratios. 
  • The inability to amend the clauses related to the messages until the custom is over.
  • Not including the fees of containers close to food automatically on the system.
  • In some food-related messages, the inclusion of fees varies each time it is listed. For instance, one time it is listed according to the new regulation and another time it is based on the old regulation and one time not being listed at all, hence, it requires adjusting the fees and adding it manually.
  •  When sending some messages for ostensible examination it appears that the offer was cancelled by the customs which necessitates getting back to the customs and MTS for redisplay.
  • Some messages are presented that are not related to the National Authority for Food Security and it is not cancelled until it is sent for ostensible examination so that the customs and MTS are able to cancel the presentation.
  • Once the appeal’s result of the laboratory refusal is out there no option in the appeal result box to suffice with the results of the laboratory according to the decision of the appealing committee which entails sufficing with what is already written (which is the response related to the ostensible examination and not the laboratory examination). Also, when comparing the results from the appeal committee the conformity is not added automatically which requires releasing the results and registering it once more.
  • There is an issue with presenting the files on the window from outside which causes a huge loss of time during examination (Slow downloading of files).

Responsible Entities

Date 9/26/2022

  • The large amount of time and effort spent in creating structural invoices that the suppliers are obliged to do have already rejected uploading many invoices especially that a lot of abbreviations and codes were unknown to them.

Responsible Entities

Date 9/26/2022

‱    Many bans and removals on the system which appear before registering in document 46 and most of them are unknown to the customers/clients.

Responsible Entities

Date 9/26/2022

  • Issues in the application of international trade agreements as it requests submitting the original certificate of origin and uploading it on the platform does not suffice and once the application code of the agreement is put the exemption does not show up, rather, the agreement could be abrogated for the possibility of registry 46 as there is no registration in document 46 unless the agreement is abrogated.

Responsible Entities

Date 9/26/2022

  • A lot of suppliers had to reupload their documents more than time on the CARGO X platform and the document won’t be uploaded or show up for more than 3 or 4 consecutive times.

Responsible Entities

Date 9/26/2022

Other various issues related to the MTS system on a window system:

  • Issues of linking with the regulatory authorities as it results in the following problems:
    • Not applying the decision of the Prime Minister No.3053 regarding joint committees.
    • Delaying presenting that to these authorities which may reach up to four days or more.
    • The documents required for each entity separately and not being sufficient with what have been uploaded by the suppliers.
    • Delaying the release of copies related to the messages.
    • Abolition of soliciting committees that used to operate beforehand under the presidential Decree 106.
       

Responsible Entities

Date 9/26/2022

Responsible Entities

Date 9/15/2021

Responsible Entities

Date 9/15/2021

Responsible Entities

Date 9/15/2021

Responsible Entities

Date 9/15/2021

Responsible Entities

Date 9/15/2021

Responsible Entities

Date 9/15/2021

Responsible Entities

Date 9/15/2021

Responsible Entities

Date 9/15/2021

  • Duplication in the inspection of imported goods is burdensome; cargo is inspected twice: once in the country of origin, before shipping, and again, upon arrival in the receiving port; a practice which is superfluous and results in wasting time and resources. 
  • Regulations allow a company to avoid obtaining a pre-inspection certificate by registering in the whitelist register of GOEIC, however, the registration process is complicated and time-consuming. 
  • Customs officers challenge the invoice submitted by the importer even though it was approved by the Chambers of Commerce in the country of origin. Even though importers provide all the required supporting documents as proof of the true value of goods (e.g., the authenticated formal contract with the supplier, the supply orders), the dispute continues, and eventually, the invoice values are adjusted upwards “invoice price improvement”, especially for raw materials imported from outside the EU.
  • Decree No. 394 of 2019 imposes fines for late submission of required documents to Customs, however, it does not impose any fines on Customs for clearance and release delays. 

  • The procedures involved in transferring samples between GOEIC and its central laboratories, as well as the analysis procedures are sometimes slow.

  • For releasing cargo, regulations require that certificates be authenticated by the Egyptian embassy in the country of origin, as well as the chamber of commerce of that country.

  • Customs clearance is a very lengthy and redundant process in Egypt. Whereas customs processing time does not exceed two days in neighboring countries, such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, it ranges from two to five weeks in Egypt.

According to the World Bank Group's Doing Business 2018 Report:

  • The customs clearance process for exports in Egypt consumes 136 hours at a cost of $100 per container, whereas it consumes 37 hours, 20 hours, and 33 hours, in Morocco, Turkey, and UAE respectively; in OECD countries, the processes consume about 2 hours at a cost of $35.4 per container.
  • The release of imported shipments takes up to 505 hours at a cost of $1,554 per container in Egypt. In contrast, the cost per container reaches $344 in Morocco, and $126 and $961 in Turkey and UAE respectively. In OECD countries, the process takes about 3.5 hours at a cost of $25. 

Delays in customs clearance result in many challenges, including:

  • Disruption of production, undermining the ability of industrialists to meet deadlines and diminishing the efficiency of working capital. Ultimately businesses incur significant losses due to late delivery penalties that they have to payout. 
  • Burdening businesses with excessive storage fees, as trucks wait long in ports awaiting loading.

Several factors contribute to customs clearance delays, including:

  • The procedures for inspecting, appraising, reviewing, and examining cargoes are laborious and lengthy.  
  • The opening and full inspection of export containers in the customs area, with no consideration given to putting into effect the whitelist, which includes exporters with a solid track record of fulfilling the customs requirements on time. 
  • Prolonged cargo clearance processes in airports, particularly with the introduction of one-stop shops (the process can take up to 3 months), noting that fees can reach LE 1,300 per shipment.
  • Fees for laboratory analysis fluctuate, even when the volume/quantity of the sample remains fixed.
  • In some instances, the Customs Authority will stop doing business with some inspection companies without notifying importers. 
  • Many spaces that are designated for cargo examination are located outside the customs area, which prolongs the time period for sample examination.
  • The severe shortage of ultrasonic testing equipment, and the reliance on the manual examination and inspection, which entails opening the containers.
  • The insufficient number of laboratories in customs points to carry out all kinds of analysis and testing.
  • The continued reliance on traditional paper-based processes, rather than adopting digital communication methods for interacting with clients or other government entities. 
  • The less than adequate digital interconnectivity across the various customs points, especially in remote areas, which results in delays in cargo release. 
  • For cargoes that require a permit from the Ministry of Health, the Customs Law does not provide for a specific time frame for completing the sample inspection. In some instances, the inspection takes up to 25 days due to strikes by workers of the Central Laboratories (affiliated with the Ministry of Health) in the Port of Alexandria. As a result, samples are sent to Cairo for analysis, which leads to the accumulation of samples awaiting analysis, and thus delays in the clearance process.  
  • Due to the poor coordination among the different competent entities, customs officials sometimes issue arbitrary decisions to halt the clearance of shipments, which disrupts work.  

The following examples illustrate the problem:

  • The release of shipments containing materials used in the manufacturing of cosmetics came to a halt in border customs points until the payment of the health stamp tax (retroactivity, going back to 2015). This decision was based on a decree issued by the Ministry of Health; however, the said decree did not pertain to cosmetics, but rather pharmaceuticals, and had no legal basis.
  • Customs officials suspended export shipments of tea bags for weeks, on account of an internal circular concerning tobacco, which had nothing to do with tea.
  • An examination of frozen corn shipments intended for human consumption came to a stop in response to a letter from the commercial representation office in Spain, the country of origin; the letter noted injuries in the corn crop, however, without providing any scientific evidence.