| The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) organize a seminar on the implementation of Annex 8 to the International Convention on the Harmonization of Frontier Controls of Goods, 1982 (Harmonization Convention). This Seminar will take place at Room XXVI, Palais des Nations, Geneva, on 18 June 2009, and is organized in conjunction with the 122nd session of the UNECE Working Party on Customs Questions affecting Transport (WP.30) (16-19 June 2009). The Harmonization Convention establishes commonly agreed requirements for coordinated border management and reduction of border formalities as well as the number and duration of all types of border controls of goods. 53 countries and the European Community are Contracting Parties to this Convention.
In May 2008, a new Annex 8 to the Convention came into force. This is the first time that an annex to the Harmonization Convention deals with a particular mode of transport, i.e. road transport, in recognition of the fact that the road transport industry should be considered as the main beneficiary of the facilitation measures set out in the Convention. New Annex 8 covers, inter alia, facilitation of visa procedures for professional drivers, standardized weighing operations and vehicle weight certificate, minimum infrastructure requirements for efficient border crossing points and provisions to monitor the border crossing performance. The Seminar aims at capacity building to ensure a more effective implementation of the Harmonization Convention and is designed for government officials responsible for customs, transport and trade policies. It is also open to representatives of transport industry. The Seminar will include presentations by experts from various governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as by representatives of countries and the UNECE secretariat. More detail can be found in a provisional programme. Should you require more information, please contact the UNECE secretariat: tel.: +41-22-9171531, fax: +41-22-9170039, e-mail: konstantin.glukhenkiy@unece.org. | |
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| Programme, Conclusions, Participants | | | |
| Final Programme | English | PDF (74 KB) | |
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| Main Conclusions | English | PDF (59 KB) | |
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| List of participants | English | PDF (98 KB) | |
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| Presentations | | | |
| Session 1. Harmonization Convention as a tool for border crossing facilitation and coordinated border management |
| Overview of the International Convention on Harmonization of Frontier Controls of Goods, 1982
Presentation by Mr. Konstantin Glukhenkiy, UNECE | English | PDF (575 KB) | |
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| Coordinated border management
Presentation by Ms. Asha Menon, World Customs Organization | English | PDF (74 KB) | |
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| Role of the road transport industry in overcoming border crossing obstacles
Presentation by Mr. Peter Krausz, International Road Transport Union | English | PDF (3.73 MB) | |
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| Session 2. Annex 8 to the Harmonization Convention and its application at national level |
| Key legal provisions of the new Annex 8 on road transport
Presentation by Mr. Konstantin Glukhenkiy, UNECE | English | PDF (102 KB) | |
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| Facilitation of visa procedures for professional drivers
Presentation by Mr. Yevgen Koziy, BSEC | English | PDF (116 KB) | |
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| Bottlenecks in European cross-border management
Presentation by Mr. Henrik Lindström, Finland | English | PDF (73 KB) | |
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| Modernization of border crossing points in Turkey: new prospects in the ECO and BSEC region
Presentation by Mr. Abdullah Ramazanoğlu, Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey | English | PDF (2.84 MB) | |
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| Session 3. International vehicle weight certificate and weighing procedures |
| Experiences in the application of the vehicle weight certificate in the CIS region
Presentation by Mr. Evgeny Antipov, Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation | English | PDF (379 KB) | |
| Russian | PDF (436 KB) | |
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| EU regulations concerning weighing road vehicles and the implementation of the international vehicle weight certificate
Presentation by Mr. Pawel Stelmaszczyk, European Commission | English | PDF (14 KB) | |
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| Technical aspects of weighing road vehicles
Presentation by Mr. Felix Scheuter, HAENNI Wheel Load Scales | English | PDF (656 KB) | |
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| Session 4. Monitoring the border crossing performance and implementation of Annex 8 to the Harmonization Convention |
| Various approaches to border crossing performance measurement. Infrastructure vs. procedures: which is more important for an efficient border crossing point?
Presentation by Mr. Michel Zarnowiecki, Former Economic Officer, The World Bank | English | PDF (1.51 MB) | |
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| Use of the time-cost-distance methodology to identify bottlenecks
Presentation by Mr. Robert Nowak, UNECE | English | PDF (3.04 MB) | |
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