1. INTRODUCTION

    1.1 The Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade (MFERIT), State Customs Committee (SCC), The Agency of Standardization, Metrology and Certification (UZSTANDARD) taking into account the interest in maintaining the guard of interests and rights of consumers, quality and warranties of safety of imported production for life, health of persons and environment, and in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan, GATT/WTO Agreement on PSI, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Federation of Inspection Agencies (IFIA) have announced Pre-Shipment Inspection Scheme.

    1.2 The Pre Shipment Inspection scheme highlights the following:

    a. The core elements of the scheme is to verify and certify the quality, quantity, price, customs value and HS Code classification of the imported goods, for the purpose of assessment of Customs Duty.

    b. The fee for obtaining the certificate will be borne by the Importers, but not the Government as per Article 18.1 of the Agreement signed with MFERIT.

    c. The Pre-Shipment Inspection Agents appointed shall issue the Certificate in the form described as per attached.

    d. The L/C shall stipulate that PSI Agents will certify the Final Invoice submitted by the Seller.

    e. The Clean Report of Findings (CRF) should bear the signature of the authorized person with a dry embossed seal or a hologram.

    f. An advance copy of the CRF should reach the corresponding customs section before submission of the bill of entry.

    g. PSI Agents will mention the FOB Price and Total Value in the CRF. However the inspection fees paid to PSI Agents shall not be included within the price mentioned above.

    1.3 The following PSI Agents have been approved by the Government and have registered properly:

    (01) Overseas Merchandise Inspection Co., Ltd. (OMIC)

    (02) SGS

    (03) Intertek Testing Services (ITS)

    (04) Control Union

2. SCOPE OF PSI

    - To perform Advanced Price Valuation for applying Import License
    - To perform Physical Inspection on Quality and Quantity in supply country
    - To perform Price Verification of the goods
    - To perform Customs Tariff Code Classification
    - To issue the Certificate (CRF)
    - To certify the Final Invoice

3. GOODS SUBJECT TO PRE-SHIPMENT INSPECTION

    Any goods can be submitted for PSI to ease contract registration and customs clearance.

    a. Threshold ValueGoods below USD 10,000 (total contracted value) are not subject to mandatory PSI

    b. The PSI is mandatory for the following goods:Meat and edible meat offalDairy produceOil Seeds and FruitBeverages, spirits and vinegarTobacco Products

    c. The PSI is mandatory for the following goods, if they are imported under the Investment Program of the Republic of Uzbekistan:Equipment & Mechanical AppliancesElectrical Machinery & Equipment

    d. Prohibited Goods:Goods that are prohibited into Uzbekistan are any that violates the territorial integrity, political independence and state sovereignty, advocating war, terrorism, violence, xenophobia and religious intolerance, racism in all its forms (anti-Semitism and fascism), and pornographic materials.The above is only a guide for goods prohibited of being imported into Uzbekistan, and exporters are advised to check current laws.

    e. Goods Exempted from PSI:With the exception of goods where PSI is mandatory, the rest is voluntary. The importer/exporter can choose to undergo PSI in order to facilitate contract registration and customs clearance of goods for contracts above USD 50,000.

4. GENERAL ORGANIZATION

    The parties concerned are as follows:
    MFERIT - Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade
    SCC - State Customs Committee
    UZSTANDARD - The Agency of Standardization, Metrology and Certification
    OMIC L.O. - OMIC Tashkent Liaison Office
    OMIC Tokyo
    OMIC I.U. - OMIC Issuing Unit
    Exporter/Seller/Supplier
    Importer in Uzbekistan

5. ADVANCED PRICE VALUATION

    In order to obtain the import license from MFER, the importer has to submit the application of advanced price valuation together with the sellerfs proforma invoice to OMIC L.O.After the completion of advanced price valuation by OMIC, the original of price confirmed document is sent to the importer. Then, the importer submits the necessary import application including OMIC confirmed price document to MFER.

6. INSPECTION ORDER TRANSFER AND CRF ISSUANCE

    1) Inspection Order received from Importer, shall be registered at OMIC L.O. Tashkent.

    2) Then, transfer it to the relevant OMIC inspection office by both e-mailand DHL respectively.

    3) Upon its receipt, OMIC Tokyo and/or OMIC I.U. contacts exporter by the Request for Information (RFI) formset, in order to collect further necessary information for conducting PSI.

    4) At the same time of RFI return, date and location of PSI shall be confirmed.

    5) Physical Inspection on quantity and quality, as well as PA and Tariff coding shall be carried out, as per scope of PSI with the relevant documents received from exporter.

    6) Upon receipt of Final Shipping Documents from the exporter, Clean Report of Findings (CRF) shall be issued by OMIC I.U. based on the findings.

    7) CRF thus issued by OMIC I.U. shall be transferred by mail or fax to OMIC L.O. Tashkent, as per Template already approved by the Uzbekistan Authority.

    8) If any embossed seal is required on commercial invoice, it shall be put on the invoice accordingly.

    9) Nevertheless, OMIC L.O. Tashkent shall always print CRF out using OMIC Security Papers.

    10) OMIC L.O. Tashkent distributes thus issued CRF to MFERIT, SCC and Importer respectively.

7. PHYSICAL INSPECTION

    7.1 Physical Inspection is essentially performed so as to verify that the goods presented are in conformity with the specifications stipulated in the L/C and/or Proforma Invoice and/or relevant documents attached on quality and quantity aspects.

    7.2 The basic inspection procedure will be a visual examination, but not limited to that. At the time of Physical Inspection, the verification of the Customs Tariff Code as given on the RFI shall be performed.

    7.3 It is essential that correct and complete descriptions of the goods is provided in the Inspection Report and when any discrepancies with the description given by the Importer on the relevant documents are observed, it shall be informed to the Supplier/Seller for their corrective timely action, because no NNRF Systems has been applied.

    7.4 In case of abortive PSI, the charge from the 2nd visit can be invoiced additionally to the Supplier/Seller subject to their prior consent as a reasonable rate in the country of supply/export.

8. PRICE VERIFICATION & H.S. CODE CLASSIFICATION

    The Price Verification is requested on the Uzbekistan PSI Scheme for the purpose of determining the dutiable value of the goods, which consists of FOB, and Freight, in Tashkent if incurred as per given Customs Tariff Codes.

9. CLEAN REPORT OF FINDINGS (CRF)

    CRF shall be issued by the PSI Agent own letterhead and in case of OMIC Group, OMIC security papers distributed by OMIC Tokyo shall be used.

10. INSPECTION FEE

    Inspection Fees shall be collected from Importer in principle, but it may be collected from Exporter on behalf of the Importer.The rate shall be as per the Agreement signed between MFER and OMIC Tokyo as follows:0.8% of the total cost of consignment/CRF Minimum charge shall be USD 350 per consignment/CRF.

    Therefore, at the time of securing inspection order the inspection fee rate, payment mode shall be fixed prior to providing the PSI services.

11. LIAISON OFFICE (L.O.)

    OMIC Tashkent Liaison Office (L.O.) was established to handle the Uzbeki PSI Scheme, and Mr. E. Galyamov (Director of Tashkei International) has been authorized to operate the L.O.