WTO Praises Panama Customs Improvement, Criticizes Use of Notifications
The Panamanian government is continuing to modernize its customs regime by implementing trade facilitation measures such as advance rulings, a single window for exports and an authorized economic operator program, said the World Trade Organization (WTO) during an ongoing review of Panama’s trade policies. The country also recently created the National Customs Authority and is updating its customs computer systems, the WTO added. Since the last review on Panama in 2007, the country reduced the number of tariff rates from 37 to 29, and decreased the average most favored nation tariff from 8.5 percent to 7.6 percent.
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The Obama administration, however, urged Panama to improve its use of WTO notification procedures, said WTO Deputy Chief of Mission Chris Wilson in remarks (here). “We note that the Secretariat’s report identified a number of notifications that were lacking in the areas of [intellectual property], agriculture, trade protection, and countervailing measures,” Wilson said, adding that Panama should also expand its use of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade notifications.
The WTO report said Panama notified the WTO of eight SPS measures between 2007 and 2013, five of which were emergency measures. “Panama has 88 technical regulations, mostly covering food products, of which only six have been notified to the WTO since 2007,” said the report. “By improving its SPS systems and technical regulations and increasing transparency, Panama would be in a better position to take advantage of the trade opportunities offered by the preferential agreements.” The export of wood in slabs and blocks or planed is still prohibited in Panama because of sustainability concerns and to boost national value added, said the WTO in the report.