Iran Customs Unveils Measures to Regulate Garment Imports

The Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration has introduced measures to systemize import procedures of foreign clothing brands.

The measures, unveiled during a meeting attended by representatives of the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade, the Association of Textile Industry Producers, Iran’s Apparel Union and customs officials, are designed to support domestic garment industry and prevent smuggling.

“Customs post-clearance audit” will now be carried out for several foreign clothing brands, IRICA news portal reported.

Customs post-clearance audit refers to controls undertaken after the clearance of the goods and is designed to verify the accuracy of the data declared and confirm the proper implementation of customs and other legislation, namely the precise payment of duties, taxes and other charges.

Moreover, order registration of clothes will be carried out by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade only after the license holders registered the imported brand. Brand registration is only possible through collaboration with the parent company. Likewise, order registration certificates will only be issued for the official license holders.

As per another measure, related authorities will prevent the installation of billboards advertising clothing trademarks or brand-names that do not have a license holder retailer in Iran.

Importers are also required to record the Global Trade Item Number for branded items of clothing and their official prices as set by the parent company. GTIN is an identifier for trade items used to look up product information in a database (often by entering the number through a barcode scanner pointed at an actual product) which may belong to a retailer, manufacturer, collector, researcher or other entity.

The uniqueness and universality of the identifier are useful in establishing which product in one database corresponds to which product in another database, especially across organizational boundaries.   

Furthermore, order registration procedures must now be conducted in the name of license holder retailer and finally the value of all brand-name garments must be announced in the database of IRICA’s Single Window System.

According to the new guidelines, importers of trademarked clothing have until September 22 to register their orders.

IRICA had already banned the import of clothes through land and water borders by sailors or border couriers or at the request of any organization in a separate guideline. The customs administration also announced last week that customs controls will be exercised and customs duties will be collected at the ports of entry of free trade zones. Customs and border protection equipment were only installed at FTZs’ ports of exit up until now.

According to the Headquarters to Combat Smuggling of Goods and Foreign Exchange, clothes had the largest share among all the commodities smuggled into Iran during the fiscal March 2015-16, accounting for $2.36 billion or 41% of all the smuggled goods.

Over 9.9 million items of contraband clothing were seized that year. Over 8.5 million items of clothing were seized last year (March 2016-17) compared to 9.9 million confiscated a year before.