The General Authority of Customs (GAC) has said that the data from the Maritime Customs Administration and the Air Freight Customs Administration, have confirmed that the imports have now stabilised after witnessing a slight decline in March and April.
The Authority stressed in its monthly statistics published on its website that the movement of exports has been affected more because of fall in demand for Qatari products by the importing countries.
As for government procedures in the domestic ports, they are functioning normally and have adapted to the commercial developments, said the Authority.
Regarding the impact of the coronavirus on the movement of exports, it clarified: “As for the impact of the effects of coronavirus on the movement of exports, the Maritime Customs Administration indicates that we must look at the situation with a broader perspective because trade in the whole world is clearly affected by emergency global events.”
“Since the world has been adversely affected by this epidemic, Qatari exports are also bound to be impacted by this situation due to the low demand for commodities in importing countries. Countries’ focus has shifted to securing strategic commodities like food items, medical supplies, energy products etc.,” it added.
Regarding customs administration of air freight, the General Authority of Customs said that it provided all possible customs facilities for companies through the single window system (Alnadeeb), including the issuance of the bill of lading for the consignment.
It also pointed out that there is no doubt that there are negative effects of the spread of coronavirus, especially on the economic sector, which witnessed a noticeable decline in most countries, and this is not limited to the economies of the developing countries only, even developed economies are also hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
