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29 March 2024

UAE, Kazakhstan sign customs cooperation agreement

Published
By Wam

The UAE, represented by the Federal Customs Authority (FCA), and Kazakhstan, represented by the Customs Control Committee, signed on Monday the Co-operation and Mutual Assistance in Customs Matters Agreement.

The Agreement was signed during the visit of Kazakh Customs delegation, led by Mazhit Yessenbayev, the CCC chairman, to the UAE. The ceremony was attended by Askar Mussinov, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UAE.

"The signing of this agreement is a part of the FCA's plan to expand the scope of cooperation with the outside world through bilateral customs agreements", said Khaled Ali Al Bustani, FCA's Acting Director General. "Such agreements aim at achieving FCA's strategic goals: protecting the security of society, enhancing cooperation with the outside world, and facilitating the movement of trade through the exchange of experiences and information about consignments", he said.

"The bilateral trade between the two countries saw a significant development in the recent years. The value of mutual trade hit Dh9.9 billion during the period from 2005 until the end of October 2011", said Al Bustani.

Kazakhstan is one of the most important re-export markets for the UAE as the value of the goods re-exported from the UAE to Kazakhstan reached Dh8.4 billion within the same period. The UAE's exports and imports to and from Kazakhstan for the same period hit Dh188m and Dh1.3bn, respectively.

"Pure copper and copper alloys, wheat, zinc ore, tires, wheat flour, and books were of the imports from Kazakhstan within the same period", he said. "Petroleum oil, twisted pair wire, rubber products, precast buildings, glass tableware, and screws were the top among the goods exported to Kazakhstan. In regards to re-exports, cars, telephones, jet and momentum turbines, tractor and car spare parts and accessories, and information auto-processing tools and units thereof were the top re-exported goods from the UAE to Kazakhstan".

Both UAE and the Republic of Kazakhstan, Al Bustani said, have strong historical and commercial relations where trade plays a significant role. This requires stronger commercial cooperation ties and consolidated efforts to meet challenges facing the movement of bilateral trade. Hence, the Agreement is an important tool to facilitate mutual trade.

"The FCA has signed several customs agreements such as that with Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Algeria, and India. The agreement signed with Kazakhstan will contribute to exchange of experiences, enhancement of customs cooperation, facilitate trade as well as of protection of society from illegal trade practices through the exchange of information about consignments between the two countries", said Suoud Al Agroobi, the Director of International Relations at the FCA.

The Mutual Assistance in Customs Matters Agreements, Al Agroobi said, curb Customs violations which affect the countries' economic, commercial, financial, social and cultural interests and aim to activate measures against these violations through close cooperation between the UAE and Kazakhstan.

This Agreement, he said, includes several important items, including the fight against practices that jeopardize the security, exchange of best practices and experiences in customs matters, the protection of the economy and that of the society, the development of customs awareness and culture by exchanging experiences and information and offering joint training courses. It also includes the emphasis on the role of customs as a major economic partner and the basic rules of the exchange of information and its protection, including a legal access to information, and the fact that the information is sufficiently used for legal purposes and is safely saved.