Army Equipment in Lebanon

Lebanese public buying was rebuilt recently, and the rules are worth knowing before an agent offers to handle everything. Public Procurement Law 244/2021 and its amendments replaced the old Accounting Law regime, and the Public Procurement Authority at ppa.gov.lb publishes tender announcements, with Article 109 requiring publication on its central electronic platform. On the import side, Arabic is the official language of Lebanese Customs and the declaration is lodged by a licensed broker, though Arabic, French and English commercial documents are all accepted in practice. A buyer therefore needs a broker appointed early, and a supplier needs to know what that broker will ask for before the vessel arrives.

Cash, not credit

There is effectively no letter-of-credit market. Banks here will not confirm one unless the importer posts the full value as cash collateral up front, correspondent lines into the country have been cut or heavily conditioned, and the economy is largely dollarised. Quote cash against documents or telegraphic transfer in advance, and say so at the first enquiry rather than the third: a deal structured around a confirmed credit will not close.

Lighting on a few hours of utility power

Electricite du Liban supplies power only a few hours a day, and virtually every site of any size runs diesel generating sets for the remainder. In this division that bears mainly on flood lighting, cameras and anything with a charger. The realistic duty is a generator-backed supply with frequent restarts and voltage dips, not a stable utility feed, so ask what an item will be powered from before quoting it. Sockets are mixed to an unusual degree, with Types A, B, C, D and G all appearing at 220 V and 50 Hz, so either name the plug pattern on the order or ask for a fixed connection and let the installer terminate it locally.

An exclusive agency is now worth less

Competition Law 281 of 15 March 2022 ended the protection exclusive agents once had. A registered exclusivity no longer binds third parties, parallel imports are lawful, and the mechanism that allowed an agent to block imports at Customs was repealed. An exclusive appointment buys contractual rights between the two parties and nothing in the market, which ought to shape what either side pays for it.

Cost lines and discharge

Industrial equipment is carved out of the 3% additional customs fee introduced by Article 59 of the 2019 Budget Law, and VAT is 11%. Beirut is the primary container gateway; Tripoli, with 15.2 m of draft, super post-panamax gantry cranes and a free zone, is the better choice for out-of-gauge or break-bulk consignments. No Industrial Research Institute certificate is needed for clothing, footwear, protective or detection equipment, because the Verification of Conformity scheme it has run since August 2004 reaches consumer and low-voltage electrical goods only.

Spare parts and maintenance are outside our scope; warranty, installation and training depend entirely on the contract agreed.