What is an In Bond customs warehouse?
It is the mechanism that lets you hold goods in Panama without having imported them yet. And until you import them, you do not pay import duties.
The cargo is in the country, but it has not entered the country
A customs warehouse is a facility authorised by the Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas — Panama’s customs authority — where goods sit under customs control without having been nationalised. Physically they are in Panama, in our warehouse. Legally they have not entered yet.
That distinction is the whole business. For as long as the cargo stays under the regime, import duties and taxes are not triggered. It is not deferred billing or a payment plan: the event that creates them simply has not happened.
You do not tie up capital in duties on goods you have not sold yet.
From here, cargo leaves through one of two doors
The decision is yours, and you make it when it suits you rather than when the container lands.
Nationalization
You pay duties and taxes and the goods formally enter Panama. This is the door you use once you have a buyer in the country.
Re-export
The goods leave for any destination worldwide without ever incurring Panamanian duties. This is the door for those using the country as a redistribution point, not as a market.
You can split the cargo: nationalise what you sell here and re-export the rest.
When a customs warehouse is the right tool
It is not always. If the cargo enters Panama and sells immediately, the regime adds a step without adding an advantage. These are the three situations where it pays for itself.
You do not yet know whether Panama is the market
The goods wait here, with duties untriggered, while you decide whether they sell in the country or move on to another.
You sell in batches through the year
You nationalise only what leaves, when it leaves, instead of paying duty on the whole container up front.
Panama is your redistribution point
Cargo arrives, is regrouped and leaves again for its destination without ever incurring duties in the country.
How it works with us
- 01
Collection
We pick the cargo up at any port in the country, on the Pacific or the Atlantic coast.
- 02
Transfer
We move it to our customs facility in Curundú under the regime, with no duties triggered.
- 03
Custody
It stays in the warehouse or the yard, with security on site, for as long as you need.
- 04
Departure
We nationalise or re-export when you decide. Customs filing goes through allied brokers.
Do you have cargo waiting in Panama?
Tell us what you need to move and we will come back with the actual operation: pickup at port, custody under the In Bond regime and departure whenever you decide.
Or write to ventas@transalmaint.com