Customs Clearance Practice and Related Challenges in the Ethiopian Customs Commission: a case of Pharmaceutical
| dc.contributor.advisor | Cho, Denny (PhD) | |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Teshome, Dawit | |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Coll, Angelica | |
| dc.contributor.author | Taye, Kaleab | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-09-25T06:11:06Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-09-25T06:11:06Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-06 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Background: Pharmaceutical at ports and/or custom stations need to be cleared in the shortest possible time due to their sense of urgency and requirement of special handling. However, the customs clearance procedure in most countries is time-consuming, leading to unnecessary delays and financial losses. In Ethiopia, there is a paucity of information about pharmaceutical customs clearance practice and related challenges. Objective: To assess pharmaceutical customs clearance practice and to identify challenges in the Ethiopian Customs Commission (ECC). Methods: The study was conducted in ECC from September 2019 to January 2020. A concurrent mixed methods design was employed. Quantitative data (using a structured questionnaire, and data abstraction formats), and qualitative data (using Key Informant interview guide) were collected at the same time frame. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive (percentage, frequency, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (t- test and ANOVA). For the qualitative data, thematic analysis was applied. Results: Pharmaceutical transaction worth of $574,487,522 were cleared by the ECC in 2019/2020. Of these, more than half of the pharmaceutical were imported from Europe (57.2 %). Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Agency (EPSS) (63%) was the major importer of the products. The overall mean score for customs and trade facilitation standards was 3.13 (±0.6). On the other hand, 2.85(±0.74) was the overall mean score for efficiency of pharmaceutical custom clearance. This study showed that Pharmaceutical Importers (PI), Local Manufacturers (LM) and EPSS face various challenges in dealing with customs clearance procedure. Some of these include: delays and interruptions in the electronic system (Electronic Customs Valuation System (ECVS)), gaps in valuation system (not being invoice based and inconsistent), and poor pharmaceutical handling, and delays in the inspection of pharmaceutical imports by EFDA officers. Conclusion: Most of customs and trade facilitation standards are not being applied in ECC custom stations and the overall pharmaceutical customs clearance process was found to be inefficient. As a result, EPSS and Pharmaceutical companies are facing numerous challenges and their operations are being affected negatively. Consequently, patients are forced to bear unnecessary costs incurred due to the system inefficiency | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/3475 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | Addis Ababa University | |
| dc.subject | Customs | |
| dc.subject | Customs clearance | |
| dc.subject | ECC | |
| dc.subject | Ethiopia | |
| dc.subject | Import. | |
| dc.title | Customs Clearance Practice and Related Challenges in the Ethiopian Customs Commission: a case of Pharmaceutical | |
| dc.type | Thesis |