Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan and Russia plan to expand cooperation in the fight against smuggling.

To this end, Aydin Aliyev, Chairman of the Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee and Andrey Belyaninov, Head of the Russian Federal Customs Service who is on an official visit to Baku met on February 4.

The two countries signed a mutual action plan for 2015-2016. The sides also agreed to exchange experiences in the fight against smuggling, training of professionals, laboratory analysis and others.

Moreover, the two countries signed a joint technological scheme of information exchange.

Addressing the meeting, Aliyev said the available data in customs statistics of Azerbaijan and Russia do not reflect the total trade between the two countries. However, he noted that there are similar cases across the globe.

The document aims to remove this problem by exchanging statistical data between the two countries.

During the meeting, the two countries will also discuss the safe passage of agricultural produce through the green corridor.

“I hope soon we will sign a document on creating conditions for smooth passage of agricultural produce through the green corridor. We are now talking about perishable and processed products, with the exception of excisable goods,” Aliyev said.

Aliyev also added that the document has been already approved.

The chairman noted that Russia is one of the main economic partners of Azerbaijan.

“The custom services of the two countries have a long history of operation. We always support interests of the Commonwealth of Independent States as well as each other’s in the international organizations,” he added.

Belyaninov, in turn, underlined the dynamic development of the Azerbaijani custom services, in particular information technology.

Noting that Russia pays great attention to the regional development of Azerbaijan, he expressed concern over Azerbaijan’s border infrastructure development saying that the issue prevents the development of trade between the countries.

“Russia is interested in trade turnover with Azerbaijan in all directions. In particular, we pay attention to the supply of perishable goods from Azerbaijan, as they are relatively inexpensive, have a high quality and promptly delivered to the Russian territory,” he said.

Belyaninov’s visit in Baku will last till February 5.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia in 2014 amounted to $1.96 billion, $1.3 billion of which accounted for import to Azerbaijan from Russia, while $640.3 million accounted for export to Russia, according to the State Customs Committee.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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