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# **2.3 Customs and Border Crossing Times**

The performance of customs is one of the focal points of international trading. Longer clearance times is normally associated with lower efficiency in port operations management, complex cumbersome procedures and higher transport costs dues to high costs of storage etc. Reducing clearance requirements and guaranteeing fast and predictable release of goods is an important function of customs administrations. The effectiveness of a Customs administration can be measured by the average time taken between the arrival of the goods and their release. This helps Customs identify both the trouble areas and counteractive actions to increase their efficiency. It can also help Customs respond to tight production schedules and just-in-time inventory systems that need forward planning. Computerization of customs procedures at the border crossing stations and electronic filing of customs declarations can increase efficiency, improve compliance, facilitation and reduce long delays in customs clearance.

# _<u>Doing Business: Trading Across Borders -- 2006</u>_

The Doing Business Database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across 145 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity and growth. It provides indicators of the cost of doing business by identifying specific regulations that enhance or constrain business investment, productivity, and growth. The indicators were developed by Bank in cooperation with the Lex Mundi Association of law firms and the International Bar Association.

The principal data collection methods for the indicators are the study of the existing laws and regulations in each economy; targeted interviews with regulators or private sector professionals in each topic; and cooperative arrangements with other departments of the World Bank, other donor agencies, private consulting firms, business and law associations. The project team prepared a set of templates or questionnaires for use by staff of the World Bank Group, or other agencies, in their work on business environment issues.

Trading Across Borders is one of the 12 topics of Doing Business 2006, which compiles procedural requirements for trading a standardized shipment of goods. Every official procedure for importing and exporting the goods is recorded - starting from the final contractual agreement between the two parties, and ending with the delivery of the goods. All documentation and signatures required for country clearance of the goods are also recorded. For importing the goods, the procedures measured range from the vessel’s arrival at the port of entry to the shipment’s delivery at the factory warehouse. For exporting the goods, the procedures measured range from the packing of the goods at the factory to their departure from the port of exit.

Local freight forwarders, shipping lines, custom brokers, and port officials provided information on required procedures, documents, and signatures, as well as the time to complete each procedure. In all countries, at least one freight forwarder and another source provided the data. Due to the scope of a freight forwarder’s daily activity, the respondents have an overall view of the trade process from start to finish.

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