MANUAL DE PROCEDIMIENTOS DE OPERACIÓN ADUANERA DE REPÚBLICA DOMINICANA

This treaty has been ratified by the legislative chambers of the United States, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica. The treaty entered into force in El Salvador on March 1, 2006; in Honduras and Nicaragua on April 1, 2006; in Guatemala on July 1, 2006; in the Dominican Republic on March 1, 2007; and in Costa Rica on January 1, 2009. The Regional Trade Program of USAID/San Salvador signed a contract with Chemonics International on December 1, 2006, to implement the Regional Trade Program CAFTA-DR (CRT). The program aims to support the signatory governments of the CAFTA-DR treaty in implementing the treaty's requirements, particularly those related to Chapter 4: Rules of Origin and Origin Procedures, Chapter 5: Customs Administration, Chapter 19: Capacity Building related to Trade, and International Agreements and Conventions on Trade Facilitation. The CRT program is supporting the countries that are parties to the treaty in adapting their legislation to incorporate international best practices and comply with the obligations stipulated in the free trade treaty. Recently, the Dominican Republic has been undergoing a reengineering of its customs procedures to improve control, efficiency, and reduce the time for the clearance of merchandise, through the adoption of international standards. As part of this process, the General Directorate of Customs has requested technical assistance for the development of these tasks. The proposed activity under this consultancy aims to work, in coordination and jointly, with the General Directorate of Customs of the Dominican Republic in the proposals for new customs procedures, through the elaboration of manuals, flowcharts, and workshops for the personnel of the customs service of the Dominican Republic. The activity will involve reviewing the norms, guides, manuals, and directives issued by the General Directorate of Customs that regulate the customs procedures of the Dominican Republic, providing a report to the DGA detailing the recommendations on the changes required by the current provisions that regulate the customs procedures, and elaborating an anteproyecto of a Manual of Procedures and Internal Standards. The definitions of key terms related to customs procedures are provided, including abandonment of fact, abandonment express, customs office of departure, customs office of arrival, customs authority, security devices, storage, warehouse, acceptance of declaration, bill of lading, package, entry point, container, public customs warehouse, and customs public warehouse.