Land O’Lakes Venture37

Customs Specialist
Bangladesh Trade Facilitation (BTF)

Background:

Land O'Lakes helps communities around the world build economies by strengthening agriculture from farm-to-fork, helping businesses grow, and linking farmers to markets. Since our start in 1981, we have been leveraging nearly 100 years of expertise in dairy, animal nutrition, crop inputs and agricultural insights from Land O’Lakes, Inc., a farmer-owned agribusiness in the United States that is committed to fulfilling its purpose of feeding human progress.

Project Summary:

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded Bangladesh Trade Facilitation project (BTF) will expand regional and international trade in agricultural goods by addressing systemic constraints to agricultural trade at Bangladeshi ports; simplifying and automating import and export processes; improving the capacity of government agencies, laboratories, and warehouses; and by fostering private and public investment in cold storage networks and temperature-controlled logistics.

Position Summary:

A unique one-year opportunity for a Customs Specialist to develop content for the Smart Import Export Hub, covering HS Code Chapters 25-97. BTF developed the Smart Import Export Hub which is now housed on the Bangladesh Customs portal (and is active as "test version"). The Smart Import Export Hub is an online, searchable repository listing required trade documents and the requirements for clearing import and export goods. Chapters 1-24 have been completed making available and accessible the requirements for agricultural and food products. To improve access to information, transparency, and predictability related to cross-border trade as required by the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, it is necessary to complete the remaining chapters. Once completed/fully populated, the repository will ensure access to a complete list of documents and improve understanding of documentary compliance to reduce procedural hassles and improve cost and time efficiency for international trade. The online tool developed by BTF benefits importers, exporters, clearing and forwarding agents (C&F agents), other traders, and government regulatory agencies. Moreover. the users of the online repository are a key driver of BTF's performance results indicator for project beneficiaries.

The Customs Specialist will collect trade compliance and procedural information from different legislation, including the Import Policy Order and Export Policy, for all products covered by HS Chapters 25-97 at the HS 8-digit level. The Customs Specialist will primarily communicate and gather information from Customs officials relevant to the export and import of these products, officers of other regulatory agencies, C&F agents, and exporters and importers of the products. The information and documentation will then be organized and incorporated into a pre-determined template. The Customs Specialist will analyze legislative documents, policies, statutory regulatory orders (SROs), and other documents to understand and identify the compliance and conditions for import and export. The Customs Specialists will present and facilitate workshops at Bangladesh's main ports/points of entry: Chattogram sea port, Dhaka airport, and Benapole land port to validate the information with stakeholders. The Customs Specialist will be based in Dhaka (Banglamotors or Gulshan-2) with periodic travel to ports and other government facilities.

No. of Vacancies: 2

Reporting & Supervision: Customs Specialist reports to a BTF Technical Advisor and does not have supervisory responsibilities.

Contract Duration: 12 Months

Primary Responsibilities:

Identify product-specific documentary requirements for exporting or importing products under HS Code 25-97.
List compliance and conditions for importing and exporting products under HS Code 25-97.
Review legislative mechanisms to identify product-specific requirements for export and import.
Collect and organize reference materials and coordinate and supervise the uploading and linking to the Customs Portal.
Consult with Bangladesh Customs and other stakeholders to explore practices and procedures to export and import of the products.
Present the information in the given template.
Support integration of BTF automated systems with ASYCUDA World.
Support coordination of BTF activities with National Single Window Project.
Provide technical inputs to Risk Management automated system of BTF.
Support operationalization of BFSA Food Import Management System developed by BTF.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

An undergraduate degree (e.g. BA/BSc/BS) in chemistry, biochemistry, applied chemistry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial and production engineering, international trade, business, economics, law, public policy, or another relevant field. Master’s degree in the relevant field is preferred.
A minimum of 5 (five) years of relevant experience in Customs examination and/or assessment or Customs clearance of products under HS Chapter 25-97.
Knowledge of the regulatory agencies involved and legislation or policies relevant to the products listed under HS Chapters 25-97.
Knowledge, training, and experience about chemical content and analysis and engineering is preferred.
Deep understanding about the following areas: GoB’s legal framework relevant to trade; role of different agencies; measures and standards; and the cross-border trading process and procedures.
Be fluent in English and Bangla spoken and written languages; have excellent written, oral communication and presentation skills.
Proven teamwork and managerial skills.
Demonstrate proven competency in time management and multitasking.

How to Apply:

Please submit your CV with Cover Letter, via email to mhasan01@landolakes.com, by 15 July 2024, 5.00 PM (BST). Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interview.