On 26-27 April 2017, Almata, Kazakhstan hosted the 31st Meeting of the SCO Working Group on Customs Cooperation under the chairmanship of Russia.
The experts addressed the progress of implementing the main international legal documents of the SCO in the trade and economic sphere — the relevant section of the Action Plan on Implementation of the SCO Development Strategy towards 2025 and the List of Actions to Promote Project Activities within the SCO for 2017-2021.
The participants exchanged views on the implementation of the Customs Cooperation Programme for 2016-2021 and the work to inventory international agreements on customs cooperation signed within the SCO.
They also continued to discuss the draft Protocol on exchanging information necessary to determine and control the customs value of goods, and considered a number of relevant draft documents to be developed in the medium term.
"We discussed and made decisions on the whole range of issues on the agenda. We exchanged views and advanced constructive proposals, which should be analysed and serve as a basis for drafting documents providing for closer interaction of customs agencies of the SCO member states," said Yevgeny Kozyrev, Head of the Special Working Group and First Deputy Head of the Customs Cooperation Department of the Russian Federal Customs Service.
The SCO Special Working Group on Customs Cooperation operates under the Council of External Trade and Economy Ministers of the SCO Member States in order to implement the provisions of the SCO Programme of Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation.