The Ethiopian Customs Commission (ECC) signed a cooperation agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, for the latter to give advisory support aimed at supporting the ECC’s efforts to reform the trade logistics landscape of Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority amended the directive that required custom and duties to be calculated for insurance coverage to exclude diplomats.
The directive that enabled the authority to collect customs duties from insurance coverage when accidents occur had caused complaints from international and regional organizations as well as diplomatic missions.
A team from the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority investigated Nile Drilling and Exploration plc for alleged evasion of customs duties on imported items to Ethiopia. 
The team seized a water well drilling rig from the company’s garage according to sources. It was alleged that the rig had not fulfilled mandatory customs formalities.
The water well drilling rig passed Modjo checkpoint and was taken to the Indian company’s garage without passing the Kality Customs clearance point said the sources. This was found to be in contravention of customs procedures which require imported items entering the capital to be cleared by the Kality office before their owners can take legal possession of them.
The Revenues and Customs Authority of Ethiopia is to launch an electronic cargo tracking system on the road between Addis Ababa and Port Djibouti.
The effort, which will commence in two weeks, expects to track and monitor the transit of goods, to reduce customary theft that added up to 1.4% of commodities exported in the last fiscal year according to statistics from the International Cargo Securities Council.
Such acts of theft have negatively affected the image of Ethiopian exports on the international market claimed Belay Desta, Head of the Border Directorate with ERCA.
The Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority is in the process of automating its customs valuation system. The new system will allow the customs system in Ethiopia to transition to a transaction cost system as per the World Trade Organization Agreement in Customs Valuation from a minimum price setting system.
The project is being undertaken by the Center for Development of Advanced Computing, an Indian Software company for 3.5 million birr. ERCA signed an agreement with the company in September of 2011.
