Customer Advisory: Saudi Arabia - Mandatory requirement - Country of Origin

OOCL would like to notify our customers that Saudi Arabia has announced a new Country of Origin requirement for all laden imports to Saudi Arabia, effective February 1st 2009.

The Customs Authority of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has issued a directive for all import shipments into Saudi Arabia for mandatory embossing /engraving the country of origin on all consignments. This is effective from February 1st 2009 onwards.

For those consignments which are not having the country of origin embossed/engraved, corrective action should be taken by mentioning the country of origin which should not be removable. The correction should be done within a period not exceeding two weeks and a penalty of SR 5,000 will be charged plus a guarantee.

In case of difficulty in mentioning the country of origin, then the importer needs to re-export / return the shipment to the port of loading.

In case there is a second offence by the same importer, then Customs will impose a penalty and it will not allow clearance for the cargo but will advise the consignee to re-export it immediately.

Consignment which arrived Saudi Arabia before the effective date of this rule, should assure Customs that it will not be repeated and also to mention the country of origin on consignment which should not be removable.

Also, for your convenience, OOCL has a North America Rail Advisory feature published in our website which is updated as frequently as possible. You can find the latest information on rail and weather in the attached link.

http://www.oocl.com/NR/rdonlyres/D2DCA6BA-89C4-41EE-A3C1-D770F658E6D5/0/IntermodalMap.swf

Should you have any questions or require assistance with regards to this advisory or your shipment needs, contact OOCL Customer Service in USA or Canada at 1-888-388-6625.

Visit us and track and trace your cargo on www.oocl.com or www.cargosmart.com