Belarus and Ukraine customs officials exchange experiences with their Ukrainian and Moldovan counterparts to create a Pre-arrival Information Exchange (PRINEX) system operating at the Belarus/Ukraine border.

On June 30 – July 5, 2013 a delegation of Belarusian and Ukrainian customs officials, international customs expert, and IOM experts took part in a multi-country study visit to learn about the operation of the Pre-arrival Information Exchange System (PAIES) that is currently being used at the Ukraine and Moldova border crossing points.

The visit was organized by that International Organization for Migration (IOM) missions in Belarus and Ukraine in the framework EU-funded project “Support to the Creation of an Electronic System of Pre-arrival Information Exchange between the Customs Authorities of Belarus and Ukraine (PRINEX)”.

Being one of the first project “field” activities the visit was organized to show the officials from the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Belarus and the Ministry of Revenue and Duties of Ukraine, the international expert and the IOM project team how PAIES works in practice. During a number of working meetings a lot of good practices and lessons were learned. All the information obtained will be taken on board and provide a guidance for developing a similar electronic PRINEX system between Ukraine and Belarus.

A weeklong assessment visit with 14 participants included a number of meetings and study tours that took place at the European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) to Moldova and Ukraine office in Odessa, Ukraine/Moldova Border Crossing Point Starokozachye/Tudora, Customs Service of Moldova office in Chisinau and the at the office of the Ministry of Revenue and Duties of Ukraine in Kyiv.

PRINEX Project in brief:
2.5-year IOM implemented and EU-funded project “Support to the Creation of an Electronic System of Pre-arrival Information Exchange between the Customs Authorities of Belarus and Ukraine (PRINEX)”. consists of two major components: i) capacity building activities (study visits, trainings and workshops) and ii) development of a reliable and secure pre-arrival information exchange system between the customs bodies of Belarus and Ukraine. The project is implemented in close partnership with the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Belarus (SCCRB) and the Ministry of Revenue and Duties of Ukraine (MRDU) within the framework of the EU Eastern Partnership’s Integrated Border Management Flagship Initiative (EaP IBM).

As a result of the project’s implementation, the customs pre-arrival information exchange system at the border between Belarus and Ukraine will be installed and activated at the designated border crossing points and SCCRB / MRDU headquarters. This electronic system will allow economic actors in one of the partner countries to submit electronic declarations to the corresponding customs authorities (when exporting goods to the other partner country), and electronic transit declarations (while transiting through the other partner country), as well as to send electronic pre-arrival (preliminary) information letters to the customs authorities of the other partner country in case of exporting, or to the customs authorities of any third country in the case of transport via transit.
The PRINEX system will, inter alia, i) facilitate customs clearance procedures, ii) reduce the lines of vehicles at the border and related expenses due to traffic delays, iii) improve service delivery and living quality for the local border population, iv) increase the transit attractiveness of the entire region, v) make customs control more effective and cross-border movement more dynamic. Moreover, the system will also create an additional barrier against smuggling and help combat organized crime, as well as contribute to smoother traffic passage through the Belarus-Ukraine border.