STANDARDIZING CUSTOMS PROCEDURES.

At a conference in Moscow September 14, Customs Departments heads of the CIS member countries discussed simplification and standardization of customs documents and of cargo inspection procedures, a unified system for the classification of traded goods, and harmonization of software programs being used for recording customs transactions throughout the CIS area. The conference approved most of the proposed measures, which are designed to streamline and speed up the flow of goods among them. (17).

CIS member countries regularly complain of massive bottlenecks in the mutual deliveries of goods, caused by the absence of standardized customs procedures. All countries can therefore embrace the measures mapped out at this conference. But the Russian side outlined a follow-up stage involving unification of national customs legislation on the basis of Russia’s customs codes, preparatory to forming a CIS customs union. Some, and probably most, countries would resist such a step.

1. Interfax and Reuter, Sept. 14.

2. Radios Mayak and Moscow’s Echo, Public and Russian TVs , Kommersant-Daily, Segodnya, all from September 14.

3. Russian agencies, September 14.

4. Russia’s Radio, September 15, Interfax, September 15, Izvestiya, September 15.

5. Interfax, Moscow public TV, Russian TV, Segodnya, September 14-15.

6. Russia’s Radio, September 15.

7. Russia’s Radio, September 14-15.

8. Interfax, Rossiiskaya gazeta, September 14.

9. Komsomolskaya pravda, September 14.

10 Finansovye izvestiya, September 14. Interfax, September 14.)

11. IEA news release and Reuters, September 14

12. UPI, September 14.

13 Interfax-Ukraine and Western agencies, September 14.

14. Interfax-Ukraine, September 14.

15. BNS, September 13 and 14.

16. Interfax, September 12, 13, and 14.

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