Israel: Is COVID-19 expected more than a war? The increase in customs value in Israel, due to the COVID-19 increase in transport prices - the problem, and the solution

Author:Omer Wagner *

Abstract:
Sea freight prices have risen sharply, due to the COVID-19 crisis, global shortages of ships, declining competition in the field, and containers of contagious demand. In Israel, the value for customs purposes includes the transportation costs, as in Singapore, and the majority of the states. On the contrary, the US, Australia and NZ, have chosen to exclude transportation costs, for customs value purposes. Therefore, the increase in transportation costs leads to the increase in the value of goods for customs purposes, and to a further collection of customs duties, in Israel. The Israeli law allows the state to facilitate importers and waive the extra customs duties, and similar and other facilitations have been made in the past, for example, in a war or strike situations. Therefore, all that is required is the flexibility and activation of goodwill on the part of the state, when interpreting the law, in order to relieve the importers from extra duties, caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

Keywords:Key Words: customs, valuation, transport, covid19, Israel.

DOI:10.46333/ijtc/10/2/15

International Journal of Trade & Commerce (Vol: 10 Issue:2)