The Tripoli Chamber of Commerce held a meeting with attending members yesterday to discuss the Minister of Economy and Trade's Decision No. (449) of 2026, also issued yesterday.
Decision No. (449) of 2026, slated to come into force as of 30 September, stipulates that importers and foreign exporters must register on the PTS unified digital system. The system aims to regulate the import of goods for the purpose of trade.
The meeting dealt with the new mechanisms and procedures regulating import operations, in addition to the inquiries, observations and concerns expressed by the Chamber's employees regarding the extent to which the decision can be implemented on time, and its possible repercussions on the movement of trade and the supply of goods to the local market.
The attendees stressed the importance of regulating foreign trade operations and supporting efforts aimed at controlling the market and enhancing transparency, while stressing the need to provide the necessary technical and banking requirements to ensure the success of the implementation of the mechanism and the achievement of its objectives.
Fear over readiness of banking system
In this context, a number of attendees expressed their concern that the Central Bank of Libya and the banking system are not sufficiently prepared to implement the new mechanism on time, which may create difficulties for traders and suppliers, and affect the flow of the supply of goods and their entry into the local market.
Fears for import orders already being manufactured
There are fears of the impact that this may have on the availability of goods during the first period of the implementation of the decision, especially since the decision is scheduled to come into effect on 30 September. This timeline is considered too short for many suppliers who have orders under manufacture.
Fears of goods shortages
At the end of the meeting, the importance of continued coordination and dialogue between the concerned authorities and the private sector was stressed, and to work to address all technical and banking challenges before the start of implementation, in order to ensure the achievement of the objectives of the decision and the regulation of trade, without negatively affecting commercial activity or the flow and availability of goods to citizens.
Comment and analysis: the small business view
Speaking to several importers who classify themselves as ‘‘small businesses’’, Libya Herald was able to conclude that while most sensible Libyan citizens agree that Libya’s import system needs regulation and reform to:
Prevent the waste of the country’s valuable hard currency through the import of goods exploiting Libya's hard currency purely to smuggle exports to neighbouring states
Documentary Credit / LC fraud - through the import of low value or no goods
The import of low quality, out-of-date and dangerous goods (dumping)
There is a view that the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) is not fair and transparent in the LC-granting process.
The view is that there is a clique of big importers that have ‘‘good relations’’ with the decisionmakers at the CBL and regularly receive their LC opening requests in the millions and tens of millions of dollars – at the cost of tens if not hundreds of small traders.
They refer as evidence to the recently published CBL list of companies receiving LCs in the first half of 2026. It is dominated by Libya’s big business.
Hence, small business sees the limitation of imports through the official bank transactions as a suppression of small business at the expense of big business.
They believe that restricting Libya’s imports through official banking channels without providing a clear, fast and fair mechanism for opening credits and foreign transfers to small business will lead to:
• Disrupting the activity of small companies and suppliers.
• Creating a shortage of some goods resulting in their increased prices.
• Delay in the arrival of food, medicine and basic materials
• Small traders exiting the market in favour of large companies.
• Reducing competition
• Creating price-fixing monopolies by big business.
• Increasing the use of the black-market foreign exchange instead of eliminating it.
• Some exiting small businesses resorting to seeking state jobs
• Increasing unemployment and its negative social effects
• Creating a sense of injustice & grievance at not receiving a fair share of Libya’s oil revenues
In short, small businesses who have struggled for decades to obtain letters of credit at the preferential low rate granted by the CBL see the CBL as the bottleneck. It has failed for decades to prioritise small business requests for LCs.
They feel that the system for granting small business LC should be implemented and tested for a realistic period prior to enforcing the new restrictive import regulations.
They also want some kind of independent mechanism for approving who gets LCs, and for how much, and who does not, and why. They do not want the LC-granting decision to remain ‘‘behind closed doors’’.
Legitimate small businesses say they wants regulation – but without stifling legitimate trade.