Business

Wednesday November 18, 2009

Many exporters still unaware of FTA’s importance


KOTA KINABALU: Many exporters are still lacking in awareness in respect of the importance of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) deputy chief executive oficer Mohd Kamarudin Hassan said yesterday.

He said although they knew the benefits of the FTA for their businesses, exporters had the perception that utilising the measures under it was a hassle.

“There are a set of procedures that exporters need to follow such as obtaining a Certificate of Origin (COO) for their goods.

“This is to ensure that importing countries recognise the COO and are confident of the quality of the goods coming from Malaysia.

“It does not take long to obtain the COO. As long as the documents of exporters are in order, the COO can be issued in a matter of days,” he told reporters after opening Matrade’s seminar on optimising opportunities under Malaysia’s FTA.

According to Mohd Kamarudin, about 20% of the country’s total export revenue was from Malaysia’s FTAs with participating countries. - Bernama

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