ASEAN Customs Transit System launched

ASEAN Customs Transit System (ACTS) has officially been launched in order to reduce intra-ASEAN trading challenges and enable companies to benefit fully from the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the free movement of goods across the ASEAN region.

In 2017, ASEAN Economic Ministers set the twin goal of reducing trade transaction costs by 10% by 2020 and doubling intra-ASEAN trade between 2017 and 2025.

To realize this goal, the ASEAN Customs Transit System has been developed to allow businesses to lodge e-transit declarations directly with ASEAN Customs Authorities and to track the movement of their goods from loading at departure to delivery at the final destination.

Secretary General of ASEAN Lim Jock Hoi highlighted the vital role of the ACTS, expressing his hope that the system would be an excellent tool in enhancing ASEAN’s trade and production networks as well as establishing a more unified market for its firms and consumers.

The ACTS could also support post Covid-19 recovery to accelerate the transit movement of medical supplies, vaccines, and personal protective equipment within the member states, he added.

ASEAN Customs Transit System is simplifying the movement of goods across the region, making it more efficient and cost-effective. Under the ACTS, the private sector can make a single customs transit declaration that covers the transport of goods across multiple ASEAN countries, without the need to make repeated customs declarations or change vehicles at each border.

Special arrangements allow reliable traders to load their goods at their own premises in the country of departure, and to deliver the goods to their own premises at destination. Faster customs clearance at borders helps accelerate transit movements, and reduce the time and expense of carrying out regional trade in goods, to the benefit of producers and consumers across the ASEAN region.

The system is managed by a permanent ACTS Central Management Team based in the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia, with support from the EU-funded ARISE Plus program.

The ACTS is a remarkable achievement that is testament to the strong, dynamic, and long-standing partnership between ASEAN and the European Union, said Koen Doens, Director General for International Cooperation and Development at the European Commission.

The ACTS will make the movement of goods by road quicker and easier across the borders of the participating ASEAN Member States, thereby reducing costs for businesses and citizens.

The EU is proud to have joined ASEAN to make the ACTS a reality, providing European technical expertise and Є10 million since 2012, in addition to the Є5 million invested by our ASEAN partners, he added.

The ACTS is an online system developed by ASEAN with the financial support of the European Union under the ARISE Plus program. The ACTS is an ASEAN trade facilitation initiative under the ASEAN Framework Agreement on the Facilitation of Goods in Transit (AFAFGIT) and the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint 2025.