OREANDA-NEWS. June 04, 2009. The State Customs Committee of Belarus has worked out a set of measures to combat illegal imports from the neighbouring countries. The measures were considered at a seminar-session in Mozyr on June 4. Apart from the Belarusian customs officials, the session was attended by representatives of the customs services of Russia, Ukraine Latvia and Lithuania.

SCC Deputy Chairman of Belarus Vasily Dementei said that the attempts of smuggling have considerably increased this year. In January-May 2009, the law was infringed 8,029 times, 36.5% up from the same point last year. The Belarusian Customs withdrew Br44.6 billion worth of goods (31.5% up), 11.5 million cigarettes (almost ten times more from the same period last year), 327 transport means (2.5 times up).

Illegal import has become one of the forms of unfair competition in Belarus, which, in a certain degree, undermines the economic stability in the country. The situation has necessitated taking additional measures to counter transfrontier crime.

The participants of the workshop exchanged the information with foreign colleagues, shared the experience of detecting smuggled goods. The workshop approved the proposals of the Belarusian side to toughen the measures to counter smuggling and the main principles to be applied in implementing these measures.

The toughest measures will be applied to the duty-free import of big consignments of goods under the disguise of personal assets, the duty-free import of goods and the unauthentic information stated in the customs declarations.