Comce will be active in the National Committee for Trade Facilitation
The Mexican Council for Foreign Trade (Comce) anticipated that it will be an active member of the recently created National Committee for Trade Facilitation.
The Ministry of Economy created on a permanent basis the National Committee for Trade Facilitation, the purpose of which is to facilitate coordination between the agencies and the various entities of the Federal Public Administration for the design, execution and evaluation of programs and actions in the field of facilitation of trade. International Trade.
«Through the Logistics and Customs Committee and the Innovation Committee, we will make proposals to facilitate foreign trade,» said Fernando Ruiz Huarte, Comce general director, at a press conference held this Tuesday.
The Committee will have the function of implementing and applying the provisions of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) based on the applicable national and international regulations.
The Committee will be made up of representatives from the following agencies, who will have voice and vote: Ministry of the Economy; Secretary of Foreign Relations; Secretary of National Defense; Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit; Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources; Secretary of Energy; Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development; Ministry of Communications and Transportation, and Ministry of Health.
Objectives
The Committee will act as the coordinating body of the different dependencies of the Federal Public Administration that have competence and that intervene in the different aspects related to the implementation and application of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation.
It may also propose the signing of agreements and conventions between the representatives of the three levels of government and the social and private sectors within the scope of their competences, in order to complement the actions with the aim of achieving improvements in the trade processes. Exterior.
Additionally, it will analyze and, where appropriate, issue recommendations to improve the efficiency of processes and procedures for foreign trade in order to reduce costs and eliminate barriers to trade, in accordance with applicable national and international regulations.
Comce
The Committee, through its Chairman, will invite representatives of the Bank of Mexico, the Tax Administration Service, the National Commission for Regulatory Improvement and the Federal Commission for Economic Competition to form part of it as permanent guests (with the right to speak). .
It also considers representatives of the private sector, when deemed necessary (with the right to speak): CCE, CONCANACO, COMCE, Concamin, CNA and CAAAREM. The chambers and business confederations mentioned above are of an enunciative but not limiting nature. The Committee must be installed on March 12.
Forecast
The Comce forecasts that Mexico will have a year-on-year growth of 9% in its product exports in 2021.
Mexico’s merchandise exports totaled 417.67 billion dollars in 2020, which represented a 9.3% decrease at the annual rate and its biggest drop in the last 11 years.
NICO
At the end of 2020, the Ministry of Economy released the new numbers of all the tariff fractions with which products are classified in order to be imported or exported in compliance with the regulations in the Mexican customs.
The new list is part of the Agreement by which the Commercial Identification Numbers (NICO) and their correlation tables are disclosed. With the changes, the tariff items will have 10 digits instead of the current eight.
Ruiz Huarte said that the Comce foresees an adaptation period without major problems for the use of the new classification.
According to the Comce, about 2,000 fractions disappeared with the changes.
