This proclamation may be cited as "The re-establishment and Modernization of Customs Authority Proclamation No. 60/1997".

1.      "Authority" shall mean Ethiopian Customs Authority;

2.      "Goods" shall mean any commodities, personal effect and animals including money;

3.      "Cargo" shall mean any goods imported or exported by any mean of transport other than goods required for consumption during the voyage on board of the means of transport and, bona-fide personal baggage of passengers;

4.      "Package" shall mean any material that is used for as cover, wrapper, or container of goods;

5.      "Duties and /taxes" shall mean any duties and taxes levied on Import and Export goods;

6.      "Importation" shall mean bringing or cause to be brought, goods through the first custom station into Ethiopia;

7.      "Exportation" shall mean taking or cause to be taken out, goods through the final port of departure from Ethiopia;

8.      "Customs Port" shall mean any place that is designated by the Board, for the implementation of customs laws, to be a place for importation or exportation, unloading preservation or loading of goods;

9.      "Customs Area" shall mean the territory of Ethiopia.

10.  "Customs station" shall mean any place designated as customs office at the port of entry or exit of goods, transit routs or at customs area for the control of import and export goods, collection of duties and taxes;

11.  "Customs Warehouse" shall mean any place designated or established by a person licensed, by the Authority for the deposit of import, export or transit goods until the accomplishment of customs formalities

12.  "Ware House Operator" shall mean any administrator of a ware house that is established or the establishment of which is licensed, by the Authority in which goods are deposited until it accomplishes customs formality;

13.  "Means of Transport" shall mean any means of conveyance including animals that is used for the carriage of goods and passengers, on land, air, river lake or sea;

14.  "Master of means of Transport" shall mean a person or an agent to command, supervise or manage any means of transport during the voyage;

15.  "Transit Goods" shall mean the movement of goods from one country to another by crossing the Ethiopian Territory, or from one customs station to another either by the same or changing the means of transport;

16.  "Transit Routes" shall mean any route designated for the movement of import or export goods under customs control;

17.  "Customs Clearing Agent" shall mean a person who is licensed to deal with the customs, for and on behalf of another person, to effect customs formalities related with the importation, exportation and in general with the movement and storage of such goods within the customs area'

18.  "Customs Declaration" shall mean a form prepared by the Authority in which the details of import, export or transit goods are described for the accomplishment of customs formalities;

19.  "Customs Formalities" shall mean any customs operations carried out in connection with importation, exportation or transit of goods from the time of arrival at the customs port until released from the customs control;

20.  'Document" shall mean any invoice, form or written evidence necessary to accomplish customs formalities and it includes books of record;

21.  "Invoice" shall mean a price document prepared and signed by the manufacturer or supplier and certified by the authorized office of the exporting country as to correctness of the value and origin, stated in the document;

22.  "Identical Goods" shall mean any goods which are the same in all respects including physical characteristics, country of origin, factory, quality and reputations; minor differences would not preclude them from being regarded identical;

23.  "Similar Goods" shall mean any goods, which although not alike in all respects, have like characteristics and like component materials, which enables them to perform the same functions and to be commercially interchangeable. The quality, origin, reputation and the trade mark of the goods are among the factors to be considered in determining their similarity;

24.  "Person" shall mean any natural or juridical person;

25.  "Owner" shall mean any person or an agent who has the right to use, possess, transfer, import or export goods into or form the country and includes the master or the agent of the means of transport who, as an owner, receives the goods for conveyance;

26.  "Customs Officer" shall mean any customs employee or agent assigned to discharge customs operations other than the supporting staffs of the Authority.

27.  "Customs Police" shall mean an armed police force assigned by the Federal Police Commission to enforce customs laws under the command of the Authority;

28.  "Contraband" shall mean the act or an attempt of or providing assistance of importing goods beyond the first or exporting beyond the last customs station in contravention of laws and regulations or possessing, selling or transferring of such goods in a commercial level and it includes co-operation in such activities;

29.  "Disposal of Goods" shall mean the act of destroying or cause to be destroyed goods that can not or should not be used by burning, burying or eliminating by any means;

30.  "Board" shall mean the Federal Government Revenue Board;