Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The joint technical committee of South Sudan’s National Revenue Authority (NRA) Customs Division and Customs General Administration of Sudan on Monday met in Juba to discuss ways to safely open borders to boost trade.
The Sudanese Technical Team which arrived in Juba on Monday was led by Bashir Eltahir Bashir, the director-general of the Sudan Custom Authority to follow up on the trade agreement signed in July for cooperation between the customs of the two neighboring countries.
Speaking during the opening of the meeting in Juba, Mustafa Ahmed Almubarak, a Diplomat at the Sudan Embassy in South Sudan said it is important to address the matter of customs between the two countries and to harmonize the legal and customs to enhance trade between the two countries.
“We know that the political relations between the countries have developed in the last years or months and there is a huge development in different aspects but it wasn’t reflected enough in terms of trade and cooperation between the two countries,” Ahmed said.
“We have 10 corridors between Sudan and South Sudan and we need to accelerate our steps to start trading in all those areas. We cannot do that without technical issues to be fully addressed starting from customs when entering South Sudan and vice versa,” he stressed.
On his part, Maj. Gen. Gathon Jual Riek, the Acting Commissioner for Customs in the NRA said the 5th July 2022 trade Memorandum of Understanding needs to be implemented so that the two countries can benefit from the meeting that they are holding.
He added that once implemented the MOU will lawfully provide for trade as the agreement will act as a guide for the entry of goods and services into the two countries.
“There will be an accurate assessment on custom duties and other taxes, collect and importation and exportation and ensuring proper enforcement by both customs administration of specific measures or prohibition, restriction, and control,” Gen. Jual said.
“The agreement will address the increased global concern on the issue of security. Since information control is vital the agreement will help the custom administration of our countries on how to exchange information and keep confidentiality. The agreement will also help to cooperation along the border of our sisterly countries and handle any issue that might arise,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bashir Eltahir Bashir, director-general of the Sudan Custom Authority said the opening of the entry corridors between the two countries will boost revenue collection between customs of the two countries.
He added that the opening of the borders will allow the free movement of goods and services legally and will limit the smuggling of illegal goods across the borders of the two countries.
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