Improving the Border Agency Cooperation
Among the OIC Member States for Facilitating Trade
23
Joint operations can be encouraged in five different ways. First, documents for customs
declarations may be processed by customs officials of both countries working side by side.
When one country has finished processing an international document, such as a transit form, it
can be passed to the foreign counterpart without the driver or import agent having to lodge it
again somewhere new. Second, the interface between the two customs computer systems can
be used to send messages closing export files, logging reliable and standardised data into the
declaration processing system of the destination country, and logging the transaction.24 Third,
immigration officers could sit in the same booth and process the same passport information in
a collaborative and seamless manner. Fourth, customs officers from both countries can jointly
process all fast-track commercial traffic, such as empty trucks, in a single booth. Fifth, in the
case of road administrations at the border, some controls can be carried out jointly (e.g.
weighing).
The idea of joint inspections has increasingly found a place in discussions between customs
authorities from neighbouring countries with the objectives of saving time, avoiding fraud,
creating synergy between the two agencies, reducing parking space requirements, and
possibly storing temporarily unloaded goods under verification and thereby driving down
transaction costs of moving people and goods across borders.
Norway, Finland and Sweden
The cooperation between these three countries is built on the division of labour, where the national
border authorities of each country are allowed to provide services and exercise the legal powers of
their home country and the neighbouring countries. For instance, when goods are exported from
Norway, all paperwork related to both exports and imports may be attended by either Swedish,
Finnish or Norwegian customs officers.25
24 This includes establishing the precise time when the virtual border was crossed and the goods handed over from one
country to the other.
25 Norwegian Customs, 2011