The 2014 World Conference of the IFCBA, "Celebrating 25 years of Trade Facilitation through Expertise and Innovation", will take place from May 13-17 at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul, Korea. For detailed information and to register, please click on the attached conference program, registration form and hotel form. Completed registration and hotel forms can be sent to the IFCBA Secretariat at [email protected].

Please note that members of the IFCBA are invited to share the information about the 2014 IFCBA World Conference to their association members. 

ICC World Chambers Federation (WCF) has launched the Certificate of Origin (CO) verification website to reinforce the authenticity of the CO verification process conducted by customs authorities and chambers.

Introduced in response to requests from ICC WCF International CO Accreditation Chain members, the initiative aims to offer customs authorities the unique opportunity to verify the authenticity of COs issued by participating chambers.

The following excerpted from is a 17 December 2013 news release by the Press Information Bureau, Government of India.

In order to discourage import of sugar, the customs duty on sugar import has been raised from 10% to 15% with effect from 8.7.2013. Since then there has been hardly any imports under Open General Licence (OGL) worth affecting domestic market.

This release is available in its entirety at:
http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=101881

The following is excerpted from the 17 December 2013 edition of Capital Ethiopia.

Beker Shale, Director General of the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) and William Asiko, CEO of Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF) inked a USD 7.3 million deal on Friday December 13 at Sheraton Addis, to establish an electronic Single Window (eSW) system for international trade.

The following is excerpted from the 17 December 2013 edition of DAWN.com.

Pakistan will get concessions in duty on export of 6,000 tariff lines to European Union under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) Plus scheme, said State Minister for Commerce and Textile Industry Khurram Dastgir Khan on Monday.

“It is an opportunity for the country,” the state minister said and went on to add that it is a ‘challenge’ for his government as the export basket needs to be diversified and capacity to export has to be increased.

The following excerpted from is a 17 December 2013 news release by the Press Information Bureau, Government of India.

Indian Standards on cosmetics are formulated by Cosmetics Sectional Committee, PCD 19 of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) under the chairmanship of Drugs Controller General (India) and are covered under Schedule ‘S’ of Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945.

This release is available in its entirety at:
http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=101809

The following is excerpted from the 17 December 2013 edition of 4-traders.

This document was drafted by the Federal Customs Service under the federal law On Customs Regulation in the Russian Federation.

Under Part 1 of Article 204 of the federal law On Customs Regulation in the Russian Federation, goods are to be declared online. However, the Government has the authority to compile a list of goods, customs procedures and cases when customs declarations can be submitted in writing.

This article is available in its entirety at:

The following is excerpted from the 16 December 2013 news item by Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, PA.

With the new year, I have been thinking back on the last 12 months and where I have seen the most confusion for companies regarding import and export compliance.  It has been a tough year for companies doing international business and for compliance and risk professionals.  We have all spent hours trying to determine what export control reform will mean for our companies, we have watched countries negotiate for greater access to the U.S.

Nigeria appears to be re-opening its borders to fish imports, said some industry sources, but uncertainty still reigns over the situation, and over how much fish will actually be allowed in.

After having imposed restrictions on fish imports since October last year, it looks like the border is opening up again, said industry sources canvassed by Undercurrent News in the first week of January.

This article, excerpted from the 6 January 2014 edition of Undercurrent News, is available in its entirety at: