8% of the imports of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi pre-cleared according to the new step for facilitating trade

The General Administration of Customs - Abu Dhabi exerts strenuous efforts to enhance the efficiency of its services in order to achieve its vision, through developing the performance system by granting more facilities to the transactor and investor sector.
Statistics issued by the customs clearance system, "Dhabi", indicate the number of transactions that were cleared before the arrival of the goods in the past year 2019 was approximately 8% of the total number of registered customs data.
Customs seeks to increase this percentage to more than 15% during this year 2020.
In detail, the General Administration of Abu Dhabi Customs provided the service of pre-clearance for the transactor sector through the customs clearance system "Dhabi" for national companies and factories in order to save effort and time of the transactor sector, which reflects positively on the commercial process and contributes to improving the results of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the indicators of international competitiveness, including the cross-border trade indicators.
The concept of pre-clearance is summarized by the importer or his representative recording the customs declaration information and submitting it to the customs before the goods arrive at the customs port, allowing the transactors to finish the procedures and pay the customs fees in advance in addition to fulfilling the requirements of the regulatory authorities when necessary in order to complete the transaction progress: For example, the approval of the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, the Nuclear Energy Authority, the Ministry of Health and Prevention , or other regulatory authorities.
After completion of obtaining the approvals of the regulatory authorities, and upon the arrival of the truck to the customs port, the security inspection process is carried out, then the shipment data are matched and the immediate clearance is made for it. This reduces the time required to clear the shipments to the minimum and contributes to reducing costs and increasing competition opportunities for the commercial and industrial sectors. It also reduces the cost of clearance paid by the companies and allows them to rely on themselves instead of resorting to clearance companies to clear goods on their behalf.
Concerning the way that the companies benefit from these services, the Technical Affairs Sector of the General Administration of Customs stated that there are a number of simple steps that enable transactors to benefit from the clearance service before the arrival.
It begins by submitting an application to obtain powers to use the Dhabi system, then identifying the employees authorized by the company to use the system and clearing the transactions. After that, the stakeholder issues a number for the company’s importer, then opens a facility paid in advance account from the revenue department in the General Administration of Customs. Then the customs begins training the company's employees to deal with the system. Finally, the company will be eligible to initiate itself to declare the goods and clear its procedures before they arrive.
It is worth noting that the Customs Department has endeavored, in light of its current administrations, to provide more and more facilitating customs services in a way that benefits the local and national economy and contributes effectively to placing Abu Dhabi customs in advanced positions globally.