Some one was asleep at the switch when they came of with this one.  Shipping and clearing customs can take more than 30 days so how is this going to work??

A bill proposes obliging importers of used vehicles to submit a certificate of technical-mechanical revision and gas control, which must be issued at least 30 days before the shipment date.

The preliminary draft of law 580 presented in the National Assembly would discourage the importation of used cars, according to entrepreneurs in the sector. The proposed law establishes a series of requirements that importers of used vehicles must comply with in order to bring them into the Panamanian market.

See “Panama: Car Sales Down 13%”

Panamaamerica.com.pa reports that “…Project 580 establishes that those who import used vehicles are required to submit a technical-mechanical revision certificate and certificate for control of polluting gases duly endorsed by the authority of the country of origin, issued no earlier than 30 calendar days prior to the date the vehicle’s shipment.”

See also: “Age of the Vehicle Fleet in Central America”

“… Edgar Smith, importer of used cars, indicated that this measure affects them because those permits are not easy to acquire in the United States, least of all within a 30-day expiration date, meaning that when the vehicle is shipped, the certificate will have expired, as this procedure takes such a long time.”

See details of the bill (in Spanish).