Baku 21° C
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An informal meeting of the heads of customs services of the member countries of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) will be held for the first time in Budapest on April 14-17, 2025, Zsuzsa Kecskes, deputy head of the International Relations Department of the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary, told Report.
She noted that it is a great honor for Hungary, as an observer state in the OTS, to organize this meeting.
"The meeting will serve as a platform to discuss practical steps for improving collaboration in customs modernization, digital trade, and regional facilitation," she said.
"As Hungary is a Member State of the EU, primarily the customs cooperation is carried out in the framework of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Azerbaijan, of the other part - Protocol on mutual administrative assistance in customs matters.
Our future bilateral activities’ main objective is to develop and strengthen cooperation between the customs administrations to prevent, investigate and repress customs offenses. There is an agreement on this topic in an early stage of preparation," she added.
"We believe that strengthening customs cooperation holds the potential to unlock new opportunities for growth, reduce barriers and simplify trade processes. With this in mind, we are continuously looking for opportunities for cooperation," she said.
"Due to the fact that Hungary is a Member State of the EU, the system of substantive and procedural rules applied in our customs administration procedure is very complex because the primary rules consist of EU regulations that are directly effective and applicable. Nevertheless, it has to be highlighted that best practices and experiences can be exchanged between the two customs administrations which can contribute to the development of customs legislation as well.
Regarding the single window subject, the Hungarian customs administration is in the procedures of implementing the EU’s Single Window CERtificate EXchange electronic system, CERTEX. The system is the core element of the full single window environment for customs, which (based on the Regulation 2022/2399/EU, the Union’s SW regulation) has to be created, and started operating by all Member States until 2031. The Hungarian customs administration strongly believes that this solution is a win-win situation for the economic operators and for Hungary's Customs," she added.
