Customs

Customs is an authority or agency in the country responsible for collecting tariffs as well as for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, & hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs has been considered as the fiscal described that charges customs duties i.e. tariffs and other taxes on import and export. In recent decades, the views on the functions of customs draw considerably expanded and now covers three basic issues: taxation, security, and trade facilitation.

Each country has its own laws and regulations for the import and export of goods into and out of a country, enforced by their respective customs authorities; the import/export of some goods may be restricted or forbidden entirely. A wide range of penalties are faced by those who break these laws.

Overview

The traditional function of customs has been the assessment and collection of customs duties, which is a tariff or tax on the importation or, at times, exportation of goods. Commercial goods not yet cleared through customs are held in a customs area, often called a bonded store, until processed. Authorized ports are ordinarily recognized customs areas.

A more recent objective of customs has been trade facilitation, which is the streamlining of processing of import and export of goods to reduce trade transaction costs. The sophisticated understanding of the “trade facilitation” concept is based on the Recommendation No. 4 of UN/CEFACT “National Trade Facilitation Bodies”. According to its provisions para. 14,

facilitation covers formalities, procedures, documents and operations related to international trade transactions. Its goals are simplification, harmonization and standardization, so that transactions become easier, faster and more economical than before.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States has become the cardinal element in prompting a significant strengthening of the security component of modern customs operations, after which security-oriented control measures for supply chains have been widely implemented for the aims of preventing risk identification. At airports today, customs functions as the point of no return for any passengers; once passengers have cleared customs, they cannot go back. Anyone arriving at an airport must also clear customs previously they can officially enter a country. Those who breach the law will be detained by customs and likely listed to their original location. The movement of people into and out of a country is ordinarily monitored by migration authorities, under a breed of tag and arrangements. Immigration authorities normally check for appropriate documentation, verify that a person is entitled to enter the country, apprehend people wanted by domestic or international arrest warrants, and impede the entry of people deemed dangerous to the country.

The most complete guidelines for customs security functions implementation is delivered in the World Customs Organization proceeds example of specifications to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade SAFE, which has had five editions in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2018, respectively.