SUSPENSIVE CUSTOMS PROCEDURES
Goods transported in bond or placed under a customs procedure suspending duties, taxes and prohibitions must be covered by a surety bond “acquit-à-caution”.
The National Director of Customs may prescribe the establishment of a surety bond “acquit-à-caution” to guarantee the arrival at destination of certain goods or the fulfilment completion of certain formalities.
The surety bond “acquit-à-caution” includes, in addition to a detailed declaration of the goods, a joint and several undertaking by the principal and his guarantor to comply, within the set deadlines and subject to the penalties laid down by law, with the requirements of legislative or regulatory texts.
If the goods are not prohibited, the surety’s guarantee may be replaced by the deposit of duties and taxes.
The commitments entered into are cancelled and, where applicable, the co-signed sums are reimbursed on the basis of the discharge certificate issued by the customs officer.
In order to prevent fraud, the national director of customs may make the discharge of surety bonds “acquits-à-caution” taken out to guarantee the export or re-export of goods subject to the production of a certificate issued either by the consular authorities of the member states or by the foreign customs authorities in the country of destination, establishing that the said goods have been received at the required destination.
The quantities of goods for which the prescribed obligations have not been fulfilled are subject to the duties and taxes in force on the date of registration of the surety bond “acquits-à-caution”, and the penalties incurred are determined on the basis of these same duties and taxes or on the basis of the value of the said quantities on the domestic market on the same date. If the goods referred to above have perished as a result of a duly recorded case of force majeure, the customs administration may release the bidder from the obligation to pay
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