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"Circular to all importers"
Subject: Organizing Dealing With Goods Not Bearing Origin Marking Affixed On Them
Urgent Circular To All “Land, Sea and Air Customs Ports”
His Excellency Director General,
Dear Sir,
Further to our circular letter No. 99S/43/M dated 4/3/1429AH (12 March 2008AG) concerning the control measures organizing procedures of goods not bearing origin marking affixed on imported goods, and,
Referring to findings of report of the committee established to study obstacles hindering implementation of these control measures, and,
Due to the importance of tightening customs control on goods imported without origin marking or bearing removable origin marking, such goods shall be dealt with as follows:
First: Effective from Tuesday morning 1/2/1430AH (28 January 2009AG) any imported consignment not bearing irremovable origin marking affixed on them shall be dealt with according to following:
A. An electronic undertaking shall be recorded against its owner for each consignment not to repeat the offence, and he shall be responsible for affixing the origin marking in an irremovable manner inside the customs office or at his warehouses, provided that such correction shall take place within two weeks as maximum. A fine as much as SR5000 shall be collected on each consignment according to Article 30 of the Common Customs Law of the GCC states. Due customs duties shall be collected on it, if the consignment is from the goods exempted from customs duties, whatever the exemption document.
B. If the origin marking cannot be affixed in an irremovable manner, the importer shall be responsible to return the consignment to its origin without collecting a fine.
C. If the importer of any imported consignment not bearing an irremovable origin marking affixed on it is willing to return the consignment to its origin, he shall be allowed to do so without collecting a fine.
Second: For the consignments imported without origin marking after 30 days from the date of recording the first undertaking against the importer effective from 1/2/1430AH (28 January 2009AG), the importer shall not be allowed to affix the origin marking and an undertaking not to repeat the offence shall be recorded and the goods is returned to its origin.
Third: For the consignments imported before 1/2/1430AH (28 January 2009AG) and which are still existing inside the customs area, an electronic undertaking shall be recorded against the importer not to repeat the offence, and he shall be responsible to affix the origin marking in an irremovable manner inside the customs area or at his warehouses, provided that the correction shall take place within two weeks from release date.
Fourth: Emphasizing implementation of paragraphs provided for in our circular letter No. 99S/43/M dated 4/3/1429AH (12 March 2008AG). The paragraph “First” concerning the necessity that the imported goods shall bear a conspicuous irremovable origin marking whether engraved, sewn, printed or pressed according to the nature of goods. This excludes the goods to which this requirement cannot be applied due to their tiny size or nature. In such cases, it is stipulated that the packages or containers in which the goods are put up shall bear origin marking affixed on them in an irremovable manner. The paragraph “Third” concerning referral of goods, which bear duplicate origin marking or words that mislead the consumer, to the Legal Department at the Saudi Customs Headquarters in preparation for presenting the case to competent customs committee. The paragraph “Fourth” concerning destroying of offending goods on which final decisions are issued by the customs committees to confiscate them and sell the products, which their destroy is detrimental to the environment, at the export duty rate to the same country exported from, after collecting the prescribed fine. It is not allowed to correct the information on the counterfeit goods, and its documents shall be stamped indicating that they are prohibited from entering the Kingdom and re-exported for being counterfeit according to Article 56/C of the Common Customs Law of the GCC states.
Fifth: Emphasizing to all officials in charge at customs ports to record and enter undertakings electronically at first hand, and prepare seizure reports for all re-exported consignments. They also enter seizure reports electronically for all manual undertakings registered already against the importers in the automated system after carrying out all electronic modifications for statistical and risk management purposes.
Sixth: Operate effectively the following sections: Control and Investigation “Random Inspection”, Commercial Fraud Combating and Follow up to verify that they apply those control measures and prepare weekly reports submitted to the customs port director.
Seventh: All customs ports shall audit imports of importers who have undertakings already recorded against them and involved in offending origin marking instructions.
Eighth: The Restrictions Department at the Saudi Customs Headquarters shall be responsible for following up the undertakings, verifying implementation of these control measures, preparing weekly reports submitted to us and providing a copy of the report to the Risk Management Unit.
Ninth: The committee assigned to study the origin marking control measures shall meet once every three months as of the date of putting these measures in effect to evaluate the implementation results and submit a detailed report accordingly.
We hope that all necessary measures shall be completed, these instructions shall be complied with, conveyed to the officials in charge and have them sign for information. The program to collect the fines referred to in paragraph “First/A” has been developed. The Deputy Director General for Technical Affairs and Information has been provided with a copy of this circular letter to modify the automated system in order to interface the import declaration with re-export declaration, and enable the officials in charge at customs ports to transfer data electronically from the import declaration system to the automated seizure report and legal case systems. It is planned that the system will be ready on 22/2/1430AH (17 February 2009AG).
Saleh M. Al-Khaliwi
Director General of Saudi Customs
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