Mohammed Jumaa Buosaiba, Director-General of the Federal Customs Authority, has said that the implementation of an electronic direct automatic transfer of customs duties system among GCC countries, or 'Tam' system, is one of the most important requirements for completing the GCC Customs Union, as it allows the exchange of information with more ease and accuracy than ever before.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Buosaiba commented on the official implementation of Phase II of the system, which began last October, saying that the Tam system supports the initiatives of trade facilitation and development between GCC countries, and promotes the competitiveness of the UAE in terms of customs efficiency by reducing the number of documents and procedures and saving time in the completion of work in ports with the GCC countries.

Direct intra-trade between the GCC countries between 2003 and end of June, 2015, reached Dh750 billion, and 11 thousand transactions valued at Dh 91 million have been processed in the 45 days since the implementation of the new Tam system.

The value of the duties transferred by the UAE to GCC countries reached Dh 8.5 billion, compared to 1.6 billion being the country's share in the framework of manual clearing.

The Tam system will transfer the manual clearing of customs duties between GCC countries to a direct automatic transfer system, reducing the time required for the transfer of customs duties to just one month, compared to a few months or even a year to audit, approve, and then manually transfer such duties in the past.

He said, "The system significantly contributes to minimising errors that may occur due to the manual input process. Individuals can take advantage of the Tam system for direct automated transfer of customs duties by the exemption of incoming shipments from GCC countries, and avoiding the recurrence of paying customs tax at the final destination of the commodity or goods."

He explained that the system prevents the repetition of customs procedures in intra-ports, thereby contributing to saving the time of customs clearance in intra-port. The system also helps create a shared database between GCC countries, which supports the entering of details of the goods before their arrival into the risk management systems of the customs departments. It contributes to speed up the customs procedures at the time of arrival of the goods.