The pre-arrival information exchange on shipments is crucial to early profiling and identifying high-risk consignments prior to their arrival to the Customs posts and is amongst key priority areas of the CCP strategic approach. In the light of the above, the respective pilot component on establishing the mechanism of direct pre-arrival data exchange on high-risk consignments between the PCUs Farap in Turkmenistan and Alat in Uzbekistan was launched in December 2022 by PCBT, based on interest raised by Customs authorities of both countries in late 2022.
The pilot, implemented through December 2022 – January 2024, involved missions on assessing the technical needs and appropriate treaty framework between the Customs services of the two countries in the area of pre-arrival information exchange; needs-based provision of equipment for the respective subdivisions of the two Customs services in December 2023 – January 2024 with special server and computer hardware and software, and communication equipment; and delivery of a series of theoretical and practical capacity-building events on risk profiling and targeting and data exchange concepts and practices, as well as cooperation promotion activities to members of both PCUs in 2022-2024.
On 23-25 January 2024, the PCBT conducted through the CCP a joint subregional practical training exercise on pre-arrival data exchange for the port control units (PCUs), deployed at the border customs posts Farap in Turkmenistan and Alat in Uzbekistan. A training exercise, attended by 16 Customs officers from among the members of both PCUs, CCP national focal points at central-level Customs services, and specialists from Customs IT-departments, represented a conclusive event of this cargo pre-arrival exchange pilot component.
The exercise, held simultaneously on both sides of the border and led by Mr. Svetlan Savov, WCO trainer was aimed at conducting a practical exercise to test and apply the mechanism of cargo pre-arrival data exchange between the two PCUs, deployed at the above Customs posts, in line with the pre-arrival data exchange concept, agreed upon by Customs services of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The participants successfully tested from their sides the exchange of mutually agreed pre-arrival data sets regarding the inbound and outbound cargo, which might represent a potential risk in terms of its legality.
The WCO trainer provided facilitation and mentoring to participating PCU members with regard to effective application of the selectivity-based and risk-informed profiling and targeting approach. The participants benefitted from the opportunities of the WCO- ContainerCOMM secure communication platform in actively and efficiently exchanging the alert messages during the exercise, by enjoying the practical cooperation and information exchange framework, provided by the Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of the PCBT/CCP Inter-Regional Network of Customs Authorities and Port Control Units (IREN), signed in May 2019 by Customs executives of 10 countries of the Central Asian and Black Sea regions and Pakistan, including Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The practical exercise provided an opportunity to successfully pilot the cargo pre-arrival data exchange, alongside enhancing skills of PCU members in both countries in advanced risk targeting and further strengthening the subregional practical cooperation. This successful practice will be further extrapolated to other adjacent Port Control Units of Central Asian countries, deployed at shared segments of their borders.
The PCBT/CCP Regional Segment for Central Asia is funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), and the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) Program, and the Governments of Japan and France.
