Despite increase in customs declarations, problems persist – clearance sector representative

AMMAN — The clearance and transport companies operating in the Kingdom completed 784,000 customs declarations during 2021 compared with 683,000 in 2020, according to President of the Association of Owners of Clearance and Transport Companies Deifallah Abu Aqouleh.

The custom declarations were distributed over export, import and transit transactions, according to Abu Aqouleh. 

During the past year, 360,000 statements were made for importing goods and commodities to the local market: 129,000 for exports, 198,000 for transit goods passing through the Kingdom, and 18,000 related to re-exporting goods of non-Jordanian origin, Abu Aqouleh noted.

Abu Aqouleh told The Jordan Times that last year Jordan witnessed an increase in the volume of work related to transit from the Aqaba Container Port to Syria and Palestine by more than a thousand per cent when compared with previous years, as 7,903 containers were cleared to go to the two countries.

“The volume of work with Iraq decreased during 10 months of 2021 by 48.4 per cent, as the number of containers passing through the Aqaba Container Port towards Iraq decreased to 5,191 containers, compared with 10,064 containers for the same period in 2020,” Abu Aqouleh told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

He pointed out that the total number of ships that docked in the main port of Aqaba during the past year was 1,845, compared with 1,578 ships in 2020, and the volume of local imports reached 9.885 million tonnes, while the volume of exports amounted to 4.830 million tonnes.

Abu Aqouleh also indicated that nearly 58,000 vehicles were cleared last year in the Zarqa Free Zone for the local market, noting that the number of containers (20 and 40 feet) that were exported outside the Kingdom through the container port in 2021 reached 93,000 containers compared with 85,000 in 2020, while the number of containers imported to Jordan reached 247,000 containers during 2021, compared with 274,000 containers in 2020.

Abu Aqouleh stressed the need to solve the problems facing the clearance sector, noting that there is a slowdown in the electronic response related to transactions from the entities involved in the work system.

He called on the government to reconsider the fees imposed on Jordanian and Syrian trucks and to activate the memorandum of understanding signed in this regard, which will “help reduce costs, attract traders and importers and encourage inter-trade between the two countries”.

Abu Aqouleh called on the Aqaba region authority to grant discounts on handling fees imposed on transit goods to attract imports and goods through the port of Aqaba, which is applicable for goods going to Iraq.

Abu Aqouleh called on the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) to reduce the inspection of goods and to solve the problem of backlog of goods and disruption and the lack of workers and vehicles in order to speed up the inspection of goods and reduce the estimated value of goods imported to Jordan.

“These problems are huge obstacles in the sector and they still exist today. We are hoping that our demands will be met in order to increase imports, exports and transit and improve the sector in the Kingdom,” he concluded.