Baku, Azerbaijan, May 27
By Emin Aliyev - Trend:
An idea of establishing the common customs posts with neighboring countries is not as simple as it seems, chairman of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev told Trend on May 26.
"Such attempts have already been made in previous years, but they haven't been realized" he added.
"The main problem is the issue of jurisdiction," he said. "There's no such thing as neutral territories today. Every land belongs to one or another country."
"Moreover, in case of violating the customs regime or paperwork, several issues arise," Aliyev said. "They concern the body which will investigate this violation, the regulations to be used, and many other issues."
"Common posts is an idea," he said. "At present, it is difficult to talk about its implementation in accordance with the initial expectations."
Azerbaijan and Georgia are working in this direction.
Vakhtang Lashkaradze, Head of the Information Technologies Center of Georgian Finance Ministry's Revenue Service (a body combining the functions of taxes and customs authorities), said a pilot project was launched in late February at the Red Bridge (Tsiteli Khidi, also called Sinig Korpu from the Azerbaijani side) customs checkpoint.
The project includes a system for exchanging information on imports and exports between the customs authorities of the two countries.
Another pilot project for creating a unified customs post was also launched there.
Lashkaradze said that despite some small errors, a trial run has shown that this project is effective and promising.
He added that a unified processing of information on the cargos crossing the border and common customs points will be realized in the long term across the customs border between Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Lashkaradze also said the agreement on sharing data will be awarded this year, probably in September.
There six customs posts between Azerbaijan and Georgia.
They are subordinated by Balakan and Tovuz customs administrations, and include Sadikhli, Sinig Korpu, Jandargel, Mazimchay, Muganli road posts and Boyuk Kasik railway post.
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