A: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is mandated by the legislature to promote, develop, regulate, control, operate and expand commercial activities within the Republic of Liberia. In order to regulate these commercial activities, the ministry exercises broad powers for the protection of the public interest and the achievement of national goals. To achieve this, it has implemented a scheme called Pre-Shipment Inspection or PSI. Under this scheme, the Ministry obtains information on the trade transactions through verification of trade documents, correct prices, quality and quantity to ensure that goods entering the Commerce of Liberia are accurate and genuine. The PSI is also relevant for exportation of goods because it ascertains that the export values are correctly quoted and are in the interest of the nation and its people. Procedures for importing and exporting goods are relatively straightforward as itemized below.

1. Submit a letter of application to the Minister of Commerce and Industry along with a recent passport size picture.
2. The entity must be a registered business.
3. Proforma invoice and other documents necessary for the processing of the Import/Export permit must be submitted to the Division of Foreign Trade.
4. Permits are then purchased; for the Import Permit, the cost is $25.00USD and the Export Permit costs $150.00USD. Permits for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) are free.
5. Importation of all goods must be accompanied by an "Import Declaration Permit" (IDP). Custom duty fees vary depending on the specific type of goods being imported.
6. Exportation of goods must be accompanied by an "Export Declaration Permit" (EDP). There is a BIVAC Pre-Shipment Inspections fee of $250.00USD (FOB value less than $16,667USD) and 1.5% on the FOB (value greater than $16,667USD); export is 1.4%.

List of shipping agncies inside/outside Liberia