São Paulo – The League of Arab States has approved a project from the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce for an online system designed to issue certificates of origin and legalize export documents. The announcement was made by the Chamber’s CEO Michel Alaby following a meeting with the League’s joint secretary general for Economic Affairs, Mohammed Al-Tuwaijri, this Thursday (28th) in Cairo.
“The goal is to cut down red tape, times and costs to [Brazilian] exporters, [Arab] importers and the end consumer,” Alaby asserted. The League’s approval was crucial, since the multilateral organization has accredited the Arab Chamber as the sole Brazilian organization authorized to certify exports to Arab countries.
According to Alaby, the project is backed by the Association of Brazilian Beef Exporters (Abiec), the Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA) and the Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil (Fambras), which is in charge of issuing halal certification, i.e. attesting that the goods being exported are produced in accordance with Islamic traditions.
The project was submitted by Alaby and the Chamber’s Government Relations manager Tamer Mansour last Monday to Tuwaijri and other League officials, including the technology manager Ramy Abdallah. According to Alaby, the system will cover certificates of origin and of documents, which are issued by the Arab Brazilian Chamber, and document legalization, which is performed by the diplomatic representations of Arab countries in Brazil.
The online system should be implemented by March 2015. Prior to that, however, Alaby will introduce the project to organizations offering similar services in other countries, at the upcoming meeting of the General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Arab Countries, next September in Sudan.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
