Trade with Greece
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A 19-action strategy
The strategy for simplifying export procedures
comprises 25 actions, 19 principal and 6 auxiliary.
The first set of actions consists of those related to
the gathering of the national legislation and the
provision of information to exporters. The state’s
aim is to gather, simplify and codify, whenever
needed and/or necessary, legislation, per type of
product and country of destination. The aim is also
to combine this legislation with EU instruments,
and provide exporters with easier and simpler
information about the necessary procedures,
which will have been finalized by the end of 2014.
The second set consists of actions related to the
recording and analysis of existing business pro-
cedures, with the aim of simplifying them. The
recording of procedures will highlight the costs
and bureaucratic obstacles to export. Business
Process Analyses (BPAs) have already been
launched for 2 pilot products (representative of
the country, and more specifically, feta and kiwis)
with the participation of public administration offi-
cials and the assistance of both the Task Force
and the UN, while the BPAs for another 5 prod-
ucts will be launched in 2013, followed by 5 more
products in 2014.
The third set of actions aims at reducing the cost
to export. In Greece, exports are weighed down
by high administrative costs. To this end, the gov-
ernment aims at reducing or eliminating export-
related government agency fees. The assess-
ment of all fees paid by businesses throughout
the entire export process will be completed by the
end of 2013, and the government will take meas-
ures designed to reduce/eliminate those fees on
the basis of EU standards.
The fourth set of actions comprises those related
to pre-customs and customs procedures, and the
aim is to streamline customs operations, in order
to eliminate unnecessary procedures and deal
with the customs offices’ structural problems. The
pilot programme for analyzing customs proce-
dures that will be established within the year in
order to optimize these procedures will be
rolled-out to all customs offices, as well as all
related ministry departments in 2014, to ensure
that customs-office hours are always in line with
the needs of the exporters.
In the second phase, the government will set
quantifiable targets regarding the facilitation of
exports at the customs clearance stage, with the
aim of increasing the number of traders regis-
tered for simplified procedures, which currently
stands at only three. The government expects this
number to rise to 50 in 2013, and 100 in 2014,
while the aim is to ensure that simplified proce-
dures account for 50% of the total value of
exports by 2015. Moreover, the government
intends to increase the number of traders regis-
tered for Authorised Economic Operator, which
ensures fast procedures, not only at the export
stage, but also abroad. It is worth noting that only
23 AEOs are currently active, and the objective is
to ensure that they represent 25% of the value of
exports by 2015. By means of these procedures,
Greek authorities aim at promoting local clear-
ance, instead of customs clearance, thus signifi-
cantly increasing transparency.
The fifth set includes the streamlining/expansion
of existing risk assessment and risk analysis
tools, to ensure the automated clearance of low-
risk cases, as is the case in most EU countries.
