15 February 2008
Belarus, Estonia to intensify cooperation in customs affairs
Belarus and Estonia intend to intensify cooperation in customs affairs. A statement to this effect was made at consultations between representatives of customs agencies of the two states, which took place on 13-15 February in Estonia, Alexander Ostrovsky, Consul General of Belarus in Tallinn, told BelTA. A delegation of the State Customs Committee of Belarus included the chief of the department for countering smuggling and administrative law violations, Andrei Mikhalkevich, and the chief of the customs statistics and IT management analysis department, Sergei Dalidovich. The consultations took place at the Estonian Tax and Customs Board (at the negotiations, the Estonian party was headed by Dmitry Yegorov, a deputy director general). The officials discussed the ways of improving cooperation between customs agencies of the two states to provide better legal assistance, exchange data on the cases of violation of the administrative law, provide statistic data. The representatives of Belarus and Estonia pointed out that the increasing trade between the two states (last year it spiraled by more than $ 270 million) requires constant coordination of efforts on the part of the customs officials. In the protocol signed at the end of the consultations, the sides note the effectiveness of the contacts maintained within the framework of the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in customs affairs, share their eagerness to see further development of the bilateral interaction in all customs-related affairs.БЕЛТА