New Tunisian Customs Code To Tempt Businesses

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

04 February 2009

A new Customs Code, designed to meet the demands of Tunisia’s increasingly open economy and to enable the country to compete as a trading nation at international level, entered into force on January 1, 2009.

The revised code includes comprehensive changes to legal and constitutional texts, as well as modifications to tax and foreign trade guidelines.

The reform centres around three key objectives, which include:

• Improving the overall competitiveness of the economy, and of small and medium-sized businesses in particular. This improvement, achieved by restructuring the existing customs systems and aligning them with international standards, aims to enable Tunisian businesses to work in a more flexible environment, similar to their foreign competitors, and, crucially, seeks to reduce import and export costs and to guarantee trading fluidity.
• Consolidating guarantees granted to economic operators dealing with customs, designed to boost confidence and improve transparency. To this end, under the new legislation, a mechanism for mediation and conciliation has been established, designed to settle disputes arising between the customs administration and the economic operators. Here, a conciliation commission “la commission de conciliation et d’expertise douanière” and a judiciary “l’institution judiciaire” have been established.
• Adapting the customs legislation with the national legal system.

Aiming to harmonise its customs services with its national legal system, the reform also seeks to enable Tunisia to meet certain international obligations arising from the conclusion of recent agreements, notably the Association Agreement signed between Tunisia and the European Union, the Free Trade Zone agreement, and Tunisia’s membership of the World Trade Organisation.

The new Customs Code complies with specific guidelines contained in the Free Trade Zone agreement between Tunisia and the European Union. Consequently, tariffs and taxes are no longer levied on industrial products of European origin. However, these products will remain subject to consumption and to value added taxes, as well as to customs checks. Products emanating from other countries continue to remain subject to customs charges and taxes.

Regarding import taxes, in certain circumstances these taxes may either be exempted or reduced for certain products and raw materials. For example:

• Customs tax will be reduced by 10% for raw materials and unfinished products entering Tunisia for the manufacture of specific products and equipment.
• Raw materials and unfinished products not produced locally, yet essential for the production of medicines, will not be subject to customs tax.
• Imported products necessary for the production of computer hardware, will also not be subject to customs tax.

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