Trade and Commercial Law Assessment - Honduras - Economic ...

TRADE AND COMMERCIAL LAW ASSESSMENT DECEMBER 2004
HONDURAS
Administration (FDA) issues these certificates, at a cost of $10 per certificate. Certificates must
be authenticated three times through notary actions, twice in the exporting country and once by
the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Trade. As a result, according to Ministry of Health officials,
securing a certificate usually takes about 4 to 8 weeks, at a cost of $80 to $100. The second step
involves filing the certificate with the registration at the Ministry of Health. For processed food
registration, which can be submitted and approved at four locations throughout the country,
approval takes about 20–30 working days, at a fee of $11. For pharmaceuticals and
cosmetics,
the process is more lengthy, costly, and centralized (in Tegucigalpa). Fees range from $20 to $ 30
for administrative processing with a flat $350 for required laboratory analysis. The laboratory at
the Honduran Pharmaceutical College is used for this purpose. Although current regulations state
that this process must be completed within 40 working days, this deadline is often missed, and
Ministry of Health officials acknowledged that the process can take as long as 6 to 8 months.
A staff of 12–14 members, who manually administer all steps in the process, handles
registrations. Collected fees, with the exception of those for laboratory analysis, are dedicated to
Health Ministry operations. The agency is now rewriting the current law to increase
administrative fees by 50–100 percent, which they say will more accurately reflect true costs.
♦ The agency has established a customer service window at Tegucigalpa where the
trade
community can obtain registration status information. Another such window will soon be
established in San Pedro Sula. Unfortunately, this service will not shorten the time it
takes for agency personnel to actually determine registration status, which is now
approximately 2 days because of a lack of automated tracking systems. Nevertheless, the
service will enable traders to get status updates.
♦ The agency, through World Bank funding, is developing an automated operating system
within the registration
offices to track and control submissions and authorizations.
Although this will take at least 1 year to complete, and even more to implement, the
modernization process has begun.
♦
♦
1) Ministry of Health Operations That Support Trade Facilitation
The agency has taken or is now taking steps to modernize and improve its procedures through
the following actions:
Facilitative procedures for regional products were initiated in August 2004. National
registration of some food and beverage products is now accepted as valid within four
Central American countries, though Costa Rica is not participating. Under this mutual
recognition policy, products can be imported from one country to the next with a
certificate of “free sale” from a third country. A dialogue is now under way with the
Dominican Republic to establish the same reciprocal procedures.
Full accreditation of the laboratory at the Pharmaceutical College is under way. The
improvements needed to achieve this accreditation will expedite and improve the quality
of laboratory results.
♦ Laboratory fees will soon be based on the product rather than being a flat fee. This fee
structure should reduce laboratory fees for routine products.
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