OREANDA-NEWS.  January 23, 2012. Vladivostok Customs began an experiment jointly with FESCO Integrated Transport and LLC Vladivostok Container Terminal to introduce a system of electronic Advance Cargo Declaration system on imported / exported / transshipped cargo via the Port of Vladivostok, the Far Eastern Customs Directorate said. The experience will be extended to other participants of foreign trade.

The pre-arrival notification involves the electronic submission of cargo manifest to the customs authority with information required for the implementation of customs operations, before crossing the customs border of the Russian Federation, not later than two hours before the arrival of the goods.

The person concerned shall submit preliminary information in electronic form to the system of the Federal Customs Service of Russia. The cargoes are assigned a unique identifier (bar code that can be printed from a computer) of preliminary information that must be present at the border crossing point upon the arrival of goods to Russia. The customs officer reads the bar code by a scanner and the preliminary information is uploaded into a web-based application. In the absence of discrepancy between prior information and waybills, shipping documents, the customs operations will take no more than 15 minutes.

The Far Eastern Customs Directorate’s initiative is aimed to facilitate the increased trade flows passing though the port Vladivostok, but the current capacities do not allow the regional agency to implement the Advance Cargo Declaration system everywhere, the report says.