BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 13
By Fakhri Vakilov-Trend:
Uzbekistan’s State Customs Committee (SCC) has proposed to colleagues from Turkey to intensify preparation of an intergovernmental agreement on the creation of a simplified customs corridor, Trend reports citing SCC press service.
The first meeting of the joint customs council of the heads of Uzbekistan and Turkey’s customs services, created back in April 2018, was held in Tashkent. Chairman of the State Customs Committee Murotjon Azimov, and Turkish Deputy Minister of Trade Riza Tuna Turagay presided over the meeting. Special attention was paid to strengthening the contractual framework of the two institutions.
At the meeting of the Council, a number of issues that determine new areas of cooperation were discussed with the focus on strengthening the contractual base of the customs services of both states.
Uzbekistan’s side came up with the initiative to conclude agreements between the customs services of both countries on the submission and exchange of preliminary information on goods and vehicles, as well as on methodological and informational cooperation in the field of statistics.
The necessity to initiate procedures for the internal consideration of the draft international agreement between the Uzbek and Turkish governments on the creation of a simplified customs corridor was noted as well.
Moreover, during the meeting, ways to exchange information necessary to determine and control the customs value of goods was noted.
Following the meeting, the customs officers of the two countries agreed to develop an action plan for 2020–2021 in law enforcement work, focusing on areas such as smuggling, drugs, human trafficking and other customs offenses, the State Customs Committee added.
According to the State Customs Committee, currently, more than 750 enterprises with the participation of Turkish companies are operating in Uzbekistan. From Jan. through Oct. 2019, the volume of bilateral trade increased to $1.97 billion or by 26.9 percent compared to the same period in 2018.
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