20.05.2022
Local Clearance: A Simplification Allowing Customs Procedures for Import and Export to be Conducted at Company Facilities
Local clearance is a simplification that allows customs procedures for import and export to be carried out at company facilities.
For imports, it allows the goods to be transported directly to the company's premises without being taken to the customs office, and for the import procedures to be completed there. For exports, it enables the export procedures to be carried out at the company's own premises, and the export goods to be sent directly to the border customs office without being brought to an (internal) customs office.
Local clearance is a simplification permission granted to Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) companies, provided they meet certain additional conditions. It is not part of the basic package of AEO but rather included in the premium package.
When the AEO Program was launched in 2014, many OKSB companies were already using the blue line for both imports and exports for years. Therefore, reintroducing this as a green line with much more stringent additional conditions would not be a very attractive offer.
As a result, when the AEO Program was introduced in 2014, local clearance was highlighted and considered one of the most important simplifications of the AEO Program.
AEO: In the Care of God...
During the launches, our then-Minister of Customs and Trade, Mr. Hayati Yazıcı, humorously added a different meaning to the English abbreviation AEO, emphasizing that with this new status, customs would be out of the picture, and companies were effectively being entrusted to God.
However, despite being announced in 2014, local clearance could not be immediately implemented. Due to the lack of systemic infrastructure and problems caused by workflow in the legislation, its implementation was only started a few years later.
First, local clearance for exports was introduced, followed by local clearance for imports in recent years.
Despite being announced 8 years ago and numerous improvements made in the legislation, it still has not received sufficient interest from the private sector. It has also failed to gain the expected momentum for the AEO Program.
Looking at the current situation, only 13 out of our top 100 exporters have obtained the local clearance authorization. Even half of these 13 companies are not currently utilizing this authorization.
In my opinion, the lack of interest from the private sector is due to their already having relatively close practices to this simplification.
From an export perspective, especially in Istanbul, it is not wrong to say that almost all exports can already be carried out without going to the customs office.
No one can deny that this practical situation is a need specific to Istanbul, unless a better solution is created. It is not the exporters who created this situation but rather Istanbul's inability to keep up with the rapidly increasing exports in terms of infrastructure.
From an import perspective, customs warehouses and the bonded warehouse practice already offer conveniences close to local clearance, without requiring additional conditions.
However, the fact remains that while similar conveniences are already offered, demanding dozens of stringent conditions for local clearance is contradictory.
It seems that to enhance the attractiveness of the AEO Program, it would be beneficial to implement more attractive simplifications, such as deferred payment, centralized customs clearance, and declaration through registration, as soon as possible.