Customs Offices in El Salvador Hindering Trade

Cargo carriers are reporting that customs formalities can take up to 27 hours, due to the constant changes of personnel and their lack of training.

Monday, April 27, 2015

On the border of La Hachadura and Amatillo there are 15 kilometer long lines of vans which are waiting make the appropriate arrangements to pass through. Representatives from the Association of International Freight (Astic) have called for the establishment of a permanent table with the customs office in order to discuss and solve these problems, however, "... the General Department of Customs has shown no interest ...".

Raul Alfaro, president of the Astic, told Elsalvador.com that "... Since the beginning of the year I've been talking to customs, giving proposals for solutions to reach arrangements, but we have not received a response from them, it has been completely silent. At night, there is only one customs agent in charge, this holds up the passage of transport, since the average time to deal with each truck is between 20 and 25 minutes, delaying the passage. "

"... The damage not only falls on those who transport merchandise but also customers who hire this service. If no solution is found to the problems experienced at borders, carriers will be forced to raise prices to their customers as they are incurring customs waiting costs for transport companies. "

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