OREANDA-NEWS  The geography of cooperation between the Federal Customs Service (FCS) of Russia and foreign customs services covers all regions of the world. About this as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was told by Deputy Head of the service Tatiana Merkushova.

She specified that the closest cooperation is carried out with the country's most important trade and political partners — the EAEU and CIS countries, as well as the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, in particular with China, India, Iran, Mongolia, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Cuba.

"As an example of successful cooperation, we can cite projects on mutual recognition of AEO (authorized economic operator — approx. "The tapes.<url>"), based on the recommendations of the World Customs Organization and designed to form secure supply chains," said Tatiana Merkushova. Similar projects have been launched with the customs administrations of China, India, Iran, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. There are plans for the future to conclude similar agreements with a number of other states.

She also said that, following the trend of moving away from "paper" technologies, the FCS concludes agreements with foreign partners on the exchange of customs information in electronic form. "For example, we are actively developing cooperation on the use of electronic certification and verification systems for the origin of goods, aimed at simplifying the procedure for confirming the origin of goods and obtaining tariff preferences," Tatyana Merkushova said. Such systems are already being used in cooperation with Azerbaijan, Egypt, Morocco, Mongolia, Myanmar and Pakistan.

In addition, the deputy head of the Federal Customs Service said that last year negotiations began on organizing the electronic exchange of information from CITES certificates.

According to CITES, work is underway with the authorities of Bahrain, Cuba
and Venezuela. "Work is underway with India and the UAE on the Kimberley Process certificates," she concluded.

In general, against the background of the changing situation in the world, the Federal Customs Service of Russia is reviewing the directions of its international activities and allowing for the possibility of establishing contacts with new foreign partners.

Tatiana Merkushova also said that the Federal Customs Service plans to expand its network of representative offices abroad, mainly in friendly countries. "The Federal Customs Service of Russia is also considering opening a representative office in the countries of the African continent and the Middle East," she said. The deputy Head of the Federal Customs Service clarified that the service uses a regional approach. According to it, it provides not only for cooperation with the customs authorities of the host country, but also for accreditation in neighboring countries.

For example, the representative of the Federal Customs Service of Russia in Japan is involved in working with other countries in the region, in particular, Indonesia and the Philippines. The representative of the Federal Customs Service of Russia in Cuba concurrently performs the functions of the representative of the Federal Customs Service of Russia in Venezuela and Nicaragua, and the representative of the Federal Customs Service of Russia in Argentina also performs the duties of the representative in Paraguay and Uruguay.