Saudi issues new customs rules to boost local, GCC production

Saudi Arabia has approved the national rules of origin which aim to promote local content, Finance Minister Mohamed Al-Jadaan said on Twitter.

It means that products which are not made in a GCC country will be considered foreign goods by customs.

The decision was approved after coordination with the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of Trade, and the General Authority for Foreign Trade, according to the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority.

Products should have a valid certificate of origin and should be shipped directly from the producing country to the Kingdom to get a preferential tariff, according to the ministerial decree published in the Umm Al-Qura paper.

The rules also dictate that industrial establishments in the GCC must achieve a national workforce localization rate of no less than 25 percent of the total number of staff in the facility.

The ministerial decree said that products made in free zones in the region would not be considered “locally” made.

This will not exclude goods consisting of local primary raw materials, or items for which customs duties have already been paid prior to their entry into the free zones.