GOMEL, 1 March (BelTA) – The heads of the customs services of Belarus and Ukraine discussed matters of cooperation in handling the passenger and cargo traffic that will be travelling along the Silk Road. Chairman of Belarus' State Customs Committee Yuri Senko met with Head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine Roman Nasirov at the Novaya Guta border checkpoint on 1 March, BelTA has learned.
Yuri Senko pointed out that the matter is of interest to both countries. “We discussed the possible routes that vehicles may choose, evaluated the degree of readiness of the border and transport infrastructure to handle the traffic, and agreed to continue the dialogue in the future,” he noted.
In his words, the meeting was very fruitful as the parties settled many border-related issues. For instance, experts were instructed to review the agreements on mutual recognition of customs operations, which will help reduce the time that vehicles spend at the checkpoints.
The operations include x-ray scanning of vehicles and their weighing. “We can exchange the results of such checks, and the provided data will be used by the partner side to improve the efficiency of customs procedures,” Yuri Senko believes.
The parties also discussed other maters related to data exchange. They praised the performance of the pre-arrival information exchange system on goods and vehicles between the customs authorities of Belarus and Ukraine (PRINEX) put into operation at the Belarus-Ukraine border in 2015. The customs services of Belarus and Ukraine expect that PRINEX will help them build software systems that will enable data exchange.
Yuri Senko and Roman Nasirov agreed to set up expert groups that will consider the matters discussed on 1 March. During the following three months, the groups will decide on the type and amount of data to be exchanged. “After that, we will hold another meeting to sign relevant documents,” Yuri Senko said.
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