The contracting governments:

Desiring to facilitate navigation by simplifying and minimizing the official transactions, required documents, and necessary procedures upon the arrival of vessels operating in international voyages, as well as their stay and departure.

Have agreed to the following:

For the purposes of the provisions of this annex, the following meanings can be attributed to the terms mentioned:

• 1) Stowaway is a person who has secretly boarded the ship or concealed themselves in cargo that was subsequently loaded onto the ship without the consent of the shipowner, captain, or any other responsible person, and was discovered on board before the ship departed the port.

• 2) Cargo refers to any goods, items, products, and materials of any kind transported on board the ship, excluding mail, ship's provisions, spare parts, and equipment, as well as the personal belongings of the crew and the luggage of passengers.

• 3) Personal belongings of the crew are clothing and daily use items and other things, including currency belonging to the crew and transported on board the ship.

• 4) Crew members are individuals employed to perform substantial tasks related to the operation or services of the ship during a voyage, whose names are listed on the crew list.

• 5) Cruise ship is a ship on an international voyage carrying passengers participating in a group program and residing on board for the purpose of making temporary and scheduled visits to one or more ports, and it does not typically engage in the following during the voyage:

  • (a) Embarking or disembarking other passengers;

  • (b) Loading or unloading any cargo.

• 6) Customs clearance is the completion of the necessary customs procedures to allow goods to enter for local use, export, or subject to another customs procedure.

• 7) Customs release is a procedure taken by customs authorities that allows the goods subject to clearance to be placed at the disposal of the concerned parties.

• 8) Document is information provided in electronic or non-electronic means.

• 9) Estimated time of arrival is the time estimated for the ship to reach a pilot station serving a port or to expect entry into a specific location in the port area where port regulations apply.

• 10) Bill of lading is a document that contains various data derived from the bill of lading and other transport documents issued for carrying goods on board ships.

• 11) Transit passenger is a passenger arriving from a foreign country on board a ship for the purpose of completing their journey to another foreign country on board the ship or by another means of transport.

• 12) Accompanied luggage of passengers refers to property that may include currency, transported for the benefit of a passenger on board the ship, whether in their personal possession or not, provided that this is not done under a transport contract or similar agreement.

• 13) Port is any port, harbor, shipbuilding or repair yard, or natural anchorage typically used for loading, unloading, repairing, or mooring ships, or any other location that the ship may frequent.

• 14) Mail includes correspondence and other items that postal authorities are authorized to transport on the ship for delivery to postal authorities at the ports frequented by the ship.

• 15) Public authorities are the bodies, officials, or authorities in the state responsible for implementing and enforcing the laws and regulations of that state related to any aspect of the recommended practices standards contained in this annex.

• 16) Security measures are those measures that are established and implemented in accordance with international agreements to enhance security on board ships in port areas and facilities and the goods transported through the international supply chain to reduce or prevent unlawful acts.

• 17) Shipowner is the person who owns or operates the ship, whether an individual, an institution, an entity, or any person acting on behalf of the owner or operator.

• 18) Ship documents are the certificates and other documents that the ship's captain must make available for inspection to prove the ship's compliance with international or national regulations.

• 19) Ship equipment refers to items other than spare parts carried by the ship for use on board; these are movable items but not consumables and include additional equipment such as lifeboats, rescue devices, furniture, ship clothing, ship fittings, and similar items.

• 20) Spare parts of the ship are the parts used in repair and replacement operations carried out on the ship that it carries.

• 21) Ship's provisions are goods intended for use on board the ship, including consumables, goods intended for sale to passengers and crew members, and fuel.

• 22) Shore leave is the permission granted to a crew member to go ashore during the ship's stay in port within the geographical or temporal limits, if any, that may be determined by the public authorities.

• 23) Temporary admission is a customs procedure under which specific goods are admitted into a customs area conditionally exempt from the payment of import duties or taxes or economic restrictions, provided that these goods are imported for a specific purpose and are intended for re-export within a certain period without any change except for depreciation resulting from use.

• 24) Stowaway is a person who has secretly boarded the ship or concealed themselves in cargo that was subsequently loaded onto the ship without the consent of the shipowner, captain, or any other responsible person, and was discovered after the ship had left the port or within the cargo when it was unloaded at the port of arrival, and the captain informed the relevant authorities that they were a stowaway.

• 25) Arrival time is the time at which the ship begins its stop, either mooring or docking, at a port.

• 26) Transport document is a document that proves a transport contract concluded between the shipowner and the shipper, such as a bill of lading or a consignment note or a multimodal transport document.

4/1 Prescribed Practice

Contracting governments should, when using electronic technologies for the exchange of information related to the arrival, stay, and departure of ships, as well as persons and goods for the purpose of facilitating clearance operations, encourage public authorities and other relevant parties (such as ship owners, handling companies, maritime ports, and/or shipping agents, among others) to exchange information in accordance with United Nations standards, including the United Nations lists for electronic data exchange in the fields of administration, trade, and transport.

5/1 Standard

Public authorities, when using electronic technologies for data exchange related to ship clearance, must limit the information requested from ship owners and other relevant parties to that which is required by the Facilitation Convention.

6/1 Prescribed Practice

Public authorities, when planning, using, and modifying electronic technologies for the exchange of information related to ship clearance, should strive to achieve the following:

• 1. To provide all interested parties with the opportunity for consultation from the outset.

• 2. To assess existing procedures and eliminate those deemed unnecessary.

• 3. To take the necessary actions.

• 4. To apply to the greatest extent possible the recommendations of the United Nations and the relevant standards of the International Maritime Organization for standardization.

• 5. To make these technologies available for multimedia applications.

• 6. To take steps to reduce the costs incurred by operators and other parties in implementing such technologies.

• 1-7-1 Prescribed Practice

• Contracting governments should encourage public authorities and other interested parties to cooperate and directly participate in the development of electronic systems that use internationally agreed standards to enhance the exchange of information and data upon the arrival, stay, and departure of ships, as well as persons and goods, and to ensure operational compatibility between the systems of public authorities and those used by other relevant parties.

8/1 Standard

Governments, when using electronic technologies for the exchange of information and data related to ship clearance, should encourage maritime operators and other relevant parties to use them, but without diminishing the levels of service available to operators who do not use such systems.

• 1/8/1 Prescribed Practice

• Contracting governments should urge public authorities to provide available arrangements for those engaged in trade and maritime transport, as well as for ships, to provide the information required by public authorities regarding the arrival, stay, and departure of ships, as well as persons and goods, and to avoid duplication in accessing a single entry point.

8/1 Standard

Public authorities, when using electronic technologies for data exchange related to ship clearance, should encourage maritime operators and other relevant parties to use them, but without reducing the level of services available to operators who do not use these systems.

9/1 The Required Practice

Public authorities must seek to establish cooperative arrangements with ship owners and other stakeholders to enhance their capabilities in combating drug trafficking while providing them with the necessary facilities. These arrangements may be derived from the memorandum of understanding issued by the Customs Cooperation Council.

10/1 The Standard

In cases where public authorities, ship owners, and other stakeholders have access to commercial and non-commercial information within the framework of cooperative arrangements, such information must be handled in a manner that ensures confidentiality.

11/1 Standard

Public authorities shall utilize risk management to enhance border control measures employed in the following areas:

• 1. Release and clearance of goods.

• 2. Security requirements.

• 3. Their capabilities to target smuggling.

Facilitating the movement of persons and goods in a lawful manner.

This section contains provisions related to the official transactions required from ship owners and by public authorities in cases of arrival, stay, or departure of the vessel, and it shall not be interpreted as preventing the requirement to present certificates and other documents carried by the vessel for inspection by the competent authorities related to measurement, registration, safety, and other relevant matters subject to scrutiny by the concerned authorities.

1/2 Standard

The public authorities, in cases where no other documents are required upon the arrival or departure of ships to which the Agreement applies, shall request other documents, apart from those included in this section, and the relevant documents are:

• 1) General Admission.

• 2) Cargo Admission.

• 3) Ship's Provisions Admission.

• 4) List of Crew Members' Luggage.

• 5) List of Crew Members.

• 6) List of Passengers.

• 7) Declaration of Dangerous Goods.

• 8) Document required under the Universal Postal Agreement.

• 9) Maritime Health Admission.

Note: The forms have been prepared within the framework of the Agreement on Facilitation as stated in the annex.

• General Admission Form 1

• Cargo Admission Form 2

• Ship's Provisions Admission Form 3

• List of Crew Members' Luggage Form 4

• List of Crew Members Form 5

• List of Passengers Form 6

• Declaration of Dangerous Goods Form 7

• 1/1/2 Standard

• Contracting governments shall not require procedures, fees, or legal expenses (related to ship clearance documents)

• 2/1/2 Prescribed Practice

• The public authorities shall prepare procedures for the use of advance information for arrival or departure to facilitate the processing of information requested by public authorities to expedite the release of cargo and persons.

• 3/1/2 Prescribed Practice

• Domestic laws and regulations must specify the conditions for entering advance information for arrival or departure; however, the timing of sending advance information for arrival should generally not be before the time of the ship's departure from the port of departure, although national law may, in addition to the basic rule, also specify exceptions if the duration of the journey is shorter than the basic rule.

• 4/1/2 Prescribed Practice

• The public authorities shall not require the independent submission of General Admission, Cargo Admission, List of Crew Members, and List of Passengers if the data contained in these documents is included in the advance information for arrival.

• 5/1/2 Prescribed Practice

• The public authorities shall do the following:

  • 1. Prepare systems for sending data related to the entry of advance information for departure.

  • 2. Consider reusing advance information for arrival and departure or using it later in subsequent procedures as part of all information required for the release or clearance of passengers or cargo.