An agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of Turkey on the establishment of a system for the electronic exchange of preliminary information on goods and vehicles moving between the parties was signed in Istanbul on Friday as part of a meeting between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“According to the document, information exchange will be carried out between the State Customs Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Trade of Turkey. Based on the agreement, a system of electronic exchange of preliminary information will be created, through which a predetermined set of data will be exchanged in electronic form,” the press service of the President of Ukraine reports.
It is noted that the information received by the customs authorities of the parties will help speed up the movement of goods and vehicles across the borders of both states, as well as counteract customs offenses.
On behalf of Ukraine, the agreement was signed by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and on behalf of Turkey – by Trade Minister Omer Bolat.
The structure of customs offices should be optimized, according to Deputy Head of the Office of the President for economic issues Oleksiy Honcharuk has said. “The customs structure should be precisely optimized. Exactly those customs officers who will work there should have normal working conditions,” he said at a press briefing on Tuesday, commenting on statements of the head of the State Customs Service, Maksym Nefyodov, on the intention to reduce the number of custom offices from 26 to five or six.
However, he said that Nefyodov proposed a model for reforming the authority.
“Yes, we see some possibilities for optimizing the number of customs offices. To what number, I think, Max (Nefyodov) himself will also specify these figures when he starts working,” Honcharuk said.