Officials of DHL Express believe regional authorities should consider exempting packages below a certain value from formal customs clearances and certain duties and taxes.
Furthermore, they are looking forward to the day when all Caribbean countries have electronic customs clearance processes.
DHL Express’ managing director for the Caribbean, Reiner Wolfs, told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY the company was working with “customs agencies at a regional level” on areas including de minimis levels.
“The de minimis level is the level where a shipment can come into a country without need of a formal customs clearance. The higher that level is, the easier we can import shipments, and that facilitates trade tremendously.
“In countries where the de minimis level goes up we see more trade because people are more comfortable importing and it’s also more cost efficient,” he said.
Meanwhile, Barbados’ country manager Nikkolai Cowan told said about half of the countries in the region currently used manual clearance systems and this posed some challenges.
“I think as soon as we can get to that electronic stage of customs clearances it will make it much better for the customer,” he said.
Cowan explained that although DHL offered a “clearance in air” service, where shipments can clear customs before they arrive at their destination, this was not possible when countries still used manual systems.
Wolfs pointed out that in some Caribbean countries operators of small and medium sized enterprises were not properly educated about what was required to trade outside the region.
“Quite often SMEs are a little scared to operate globally because they don’t fully understand customs’ various requirements, what products can flow where, what paperwork is required, what taxes are due . . . .”
“There is some work being done on that as well – not necessarily through DHL, but we do our share to educate them one at a time,” he said.