KINGSTON, Jamaica — In a major push to modernize trade operations and boost economic productivity, the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) has unveiled a key update to its national Trade Facilitation Programme. Starting Monday, June 22, 2026, new motor vehicles imported by licensed authorized new car dealers will be eligible for immediate release from the country’s ports of entry, marking a significant departure from long-standing regulatory protocols.
For decades, all imported new vehicles were required to complete a mandatory in-person physical verification check before they could be cleared for departure from port facilities. Under the new framework, this pre-clearance inspection will be replaced with post-clearance verification, shifting the compliance check to after the vehicle has been released to the dealer. The JCA announced the policy shift in an official public statement issued Friday, noting that the change came after a months-long ongoing risk assessment of imports from authorized new car dealers. That assessment ultimately classified this category of vehicle shipments as low-risk, justifying the regulatory adjustment.
Fayval Williams, Jamaica’s Minister of Finance and the Public Service, emphasized that the policy update aligns directly with the Jamaican government’s core national productivity goals, which center on cutting red tape and increasing operational efficiency across all public sector trade functions. “This initiative reflects the Government’s commitment to improving efficiency, productivity and the ease of doing business in Jamaica,” Williams stated in the official announcement.
Williams explained that the enhanced trade facilitation measure will cut down wait times for vehicle clearance and create a more stable, predictable operating environment for legitimate automotive sector businesses to scale and expand. She also framed the change as one incremental step in a far broader public sector modernization agenda that the administration is advancing across government agencies. “The Government will continue to review operating procedures and services, identifying opportunities to simplify processes with the aim of increasing efficiency,” Williams added.
Kirk Benjamin, Acting CEO and Commissioner of Customs, echoed that perspective, pointing out that the previous pre-clearance inspection system imposed unnecessary delays and added avoidable costs for a category of imports that already carried minimal compliance risk. “For years, new motor vehicles imported by authorised dealers had to be physically verified before they could leave the port. This change will reduce time, cost and congestion at our ports of entry,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin also clarified that the update is not an ad-hoc one-off change, but a deliberate expansion of the JCA’s ongoing Trade Facilitation Programme. “These vehicles come from a small group of authorised dealers, in high volumes, with a high level of compliance, and they present a very low risk profile. That combination makes them an ideal fit for post-clearance verification,” Benjamin explained. Beyond streamlining dealer operations, the policy shift will also allow the JCA to reallocate limited customs resources that were previously dedicated to pre-clearance physical inspections to other higher-priority, higher-risk trade areas, boosting overall agency efficiency.