Special points of interest

Inside this issue

Capacity building

    A two day workshop was held on 28-29 June 2006 in Tel Aviv, in cooperation with The Peres Center for Peace and the Israel Export International Institute. Some 18 participants attended, representing exporters and importers from the West Bank cities of Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus and Ramallah. Unfortunately, Gaza-based traders were unable to attend because of the closure. Several subjects were discussed, including: INCOTERM 2000, import, export and custom procedures. In addition, two field visits were organized to EMCO Marine Ltd. & Overseas Company near Ashdod port. 

The PSC Chairwoman and General Manager participated in major conferences and workshops in Israel on behalf of the PSC. These workshops were part of the ISC annual conference, One Year to Ports Reform conference, and 66 Years Zim Line conference. The workshops focused on such issues as:

• Problems before and after ports reform,

• Zim Expansion and future plans.

• Saturday as a working day for ports.

• Security and customs regulations. 

The Gaza Regional Manager participated in a workshop that was organized by the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Paltrade. The workshop addressed:

• Export procedures.

• PSC and its establishment.

• Trade International Agreements.

Key issues raised by members

PSC is adopting a demand-driven approach to services development to ensure responsiveness to the Palestinian shipping community's needs. This involves using membership application forms as a tool for ascertaining the problems facing shippers at Israeli borders. Below is a summary of the main problems reported by members:

•  Israeli strikes at the borders by the customs, ministries, and port workers causing delays in clearing the goods.

• High charges imposed by the Israeli Standard Institute.

• Security checks, which is an additional cost that also incurs delays on all Palestine destined shipments. The high cost might influence importers not to import again.

• Checkpoints and closures increased delivery costs of shipments by around 30%.

• Unfair charges to the importers by Israeli customer brokers.

• Unfair treatment on container deposits, customs entry payments, etc.

• Palestinians do not control commercial crossing borders.

• Palestinian importers do not have access to Israeli ports, customs and duty areas.

• The import/export procedures imposed by Israel are sometimes ambiguous.