The expression “advance ruling” or “binding information” generally refers to the possibility for the economic operator to formulate an official request to the customs authorities with a view to the latter communicating to him, in an early and prior manner, its final administrative decision concerning an aspect relating either to the classification, value or origin of the goods that he wishes to import or export. To this end, traders must complete an application for an advance ruling and provide all the information required to clear their goods through customs, whether for import or export.
Information desks and Single Window for foreign trade operations
Under the provisions of the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), ratified by Cameroon, the customs administration is required to work closely with economic operators to provide them, within a transparent framework, with prior, predictable and binding information on the customs treatment of their goods in terms of tariff classification, origin, valuation methods, customs taxation or value, prior to carrying out the import or export operation.
Practical details for requesting and obtaining advance rulings
To obtain an advance ruling, the economic operator must complete details on the advance ruling application form (step 1): name, address and trade register number; commercial or technical name of goods; detailed description of goods; composition and content of goods.
Besides this general information, the economic operator is required to attach to his application for an advance ruling a sworn statement indicating that his application has neither been reviewed by customs offices nor the subject of legal proceedings (step 2).
There are three types of application that can be processed by customs, namely:
1). A request by the operator for an advance ruling on tariff classification.
Here, the operator also needs to provide information on:
• classification envisaged for the goods they wish to import or export;
• legal basis for the classification of these goods (generally the HS heading).
2). A request for an advance ruling on the rules of origin may be processed by the operator, who will be required to provide the following information in this second case:
• country of origin envisaged for the goods concerned;
• legal framework used, indicating whether the advance ruling is requested in the context of non-preferential (common) origin or preferential origin;
• conditions which enabled the determination of origin, the materials used and their origins, their tariff classifications and values.
3). Finally, the operator may request information on valuation methods.
To this end, he should precise:
• description of the nature of the transactions, notably the contract and the terms of sale;
• Possible relation with the supplier or customer;
• existence of a commission, a licence/royalty agreement and any other information relevant to determining the customs value.
Information desk set up by the TFA
As part of the implementation of the Bali Trade Facilitation Agreement, Cameroon established the National Trade Facilitation Committee (CONAFE) by Decree No. 2016/0381/PM of 1 March 2016 on the creation, organisation and operation of the National Trade Facilitation Committee. CONAFE has developed a roadmap for the implementation of the TFA, and among the activities carried out so far is the launch of an information hub called the Cameroon Trade Portal, available at https://www.cameroontradeportal.cm.
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