St. Lucia Hosts Customs Meeting
Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
November 14, 2008 (CUOPM)
St. Kitts and Nevis’ Acting Assistant Comptroller of Customs, Launlia Archibald was among trade and finance officials from the independent Member States of the OECS who attended a meeting in St. Lucia last Thursday to examine the findings of study commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat, which reviewed the application of the customs service charge and other levies on imports into OECS Member States.
The scope of the study included Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada and St. Lucia, but the findings and conclusions are relevant to all Member States. The study also made recommendations to rationalise such measures to make them consistent with WTO and CARICOM rules.
At the review of their trade policies last year, members of the WTO highlighted the fact that the application of some of the taxes on imports into OECS countries was not consistent with WTO rules. This study was commissioned to assist Member States to reform their border tax regimes.
The OECS and the Commonwealth Secretariats convened the meeting as part of a partnership to help Member States to make their trade policies compatible with WTO trade rules. The meeting was expected to prepare an action plan for reform of border tax regimes that will include time frames and resource requirements.