Background

Across the world, the need to sustain buoyant, efficient and safe trade industries is becoming increasingly important for all economies.  The reality of an increasingly competitive international trade environment coupled with the introduction of World Trade Organization (WTO) trade policy agreements pose even greater challenges for participating countries.

Countries must aggressively seek ways to keep pace with global trends in order to remain a viable choice for trade. One key strategy is to make trading and doing business in the country efficient and hassle-free in order to attract investment and boost the country’s competitive advantage.

As evidenced in trade studies done across the world where facilities exist that allow for trading processes to be completed in a single location, traders are much more likely to do business.

The government of Jamaica, in keeping with efforts to boost trade and attract investment sought to implement a strategy that would:

• benefit client/stakeholders from a more timely, efficient cost effective inspection system that would ultimately impact on the bottom line of local businesses;
• guarantee compliance with local and international standards; and
• ensure safe and wholesome food/products enter and exit the country

The establishment of the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) came out of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by three Ministries: Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Ministry of Health & Environment and the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce (MIIC).  This MOU was aimed at, among other things, offering customer service in a timely and efficient way. The bringing together of Regulatory Agencies under one roof is designed to significantly reduce the time taken to complete inspection processes, a system which had been negatively affected by the scattered arrangement of regulatory agencies

Initiated under the Agricultural Support Services Project (ASSP) in the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries, the establishment of the Inspection Centre is aimed ultimately at facilitating speedy, efficient and coordinated delivery of service at the Ports through the streamlining of inspection processes to shorten inspection turnaround time.

The new Import/Export Inspection Centre, also referred to as the “One-Stop-Shop” (OSS), will house under one roof, all the Regulatory Agencies with responsibility for animal, plant, human health and safety.

In basic terms, the one stop shop concept is a system which allows multiple government services to be accessed from a single location. This type of service, therefore, replaces the need for citizens to visit multiple agencies to transact business .This form of service will be promoted to reduce service times, improve convenience, simplicity and ease of access to services for the citizen and therefore improve customer satisfaction

The inclusion of the Regulatory Agencies in the Import/Export Inspection Centre is a preliminary step towards the creation of a single Food Safety Authority, proposed to deal primarily with food safety issues in the protection of public health and the environment.

Given the increasing pressure on the Public Sector to improve quality of service and increase efficiency, the establishment of the Jamaica Import/Export Inspection Centre is intended to bring about much needed change to benefit its clients/stakeholders.

Equipped with trained committed staff, the Centre stands ready to take trade facilitation in Jamaica to higher heights.