Azernews.Az

By Narmina Mammadova

Azerbaijan’s customs service is an example for other member countries of the World Customs Organization (WCO), WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya said on January 14 at a meeting with Chairman of Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee Safar Mehdiyev, Trend reports.

Despite the Azerbaijani Customs Committee is only 27 years old, it has achieved a lot of success, Mikuriya said.

Azerbaijan is an important transit country; the WCO monitors and supports the steps taken by Azerbaijan in this area, he noted.

In turn, Mehdiyev noted that Azerbaijan for the first time in the region joined the Electronic Exchange of Data on International Transport and completed a test project in this area.

The World Customs Organization (WCO) is studying Azerbaijan’s experience in the fight against corruption in the customs field, Kunio Mikuriya told reporters.

Mikuriya noted that the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan carried out serious reforms in various fields.

One of these reforms covers the fight against corruption, he said.

In this regard, the WCO would like Azerbaijan to share its experience and play an important role in this area as part of the organization, he added.

It was earlier reported that representative of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan to the WCO Dashgyn Aliyev was appointed to the position of manager for the development of the European region, as well as to the position of executive director of the Eurocustoms fund and German customs cooperation fund.

The WCO organizes its work in six regions, which include 182 countries. The largest of them is the European region, which unites 52 countries.

One regional development manager is assigned to each region.

Azerbaijan is the only member where the three regional structures of the WTO are functioning - the European regional office for capacity building, the Regional training center and the Regional dog training center.

Azerbaijan joined the WCO in 1992.

According to the amendments to the Customs Code of Azerbaijan, introduced in line with President Ilham Aliyev’s decree, dated November 30, 2016, in order to simplify the customs registration of goods and vehicles passing through customs border crossing points, green, blue, yellow and red systems can be used on the basis of a short import declaration.

“Green corridor” constitutes immediate release of goods without examination based on the customs control and the risk assessment conducted in accordance with the short import declaration which is submitted in electronic form in advance.

Loads of entrepreneurs meeting the blue corridor principles will be checked directly at customs. In this case, the entrepreneur submits an electronic declaration of import, after which his cargo is checked and a decision is made on admission to the country.

The "yellow corridor" is provided for goods for which a special certificate is required, for example, goods requiring medical, veterinary and other certificates. In this corridor, the goods are checked for compliance with the quality certificate, after which a decision to pass to the Azerbaijani market is made.

Cargoes entering the “red corridor” are subjects to mandatory verification. Based on the declaration submitted by the entrepreneur, the cargo is checked for quantity, quality and the specified price.

Earlier, chairman of Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee Safar Mehdiyev invited all entrepreneurs to conduct their import and export operations through the green corridor system.

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