Improving the Border Agency Cooperation
Among the OIC Member States for Facilitating Trade
75
a strong focus on trade facilitation. There is also a strategic planning council for strengthening
cooperation across various border control agencies. In this council, the customs collaborates
with the Abu Dhabi police, the department of economic development and other relevant
government bodies to define priorities of border enforcement and trade facilitation.127
4.1.2. Tangible iBAC activities in Abu Dhabi
Joint border controls
Abu Dhabi customs has special border control arrangements with the closest neighbours,
Oman and Saudi Arabia. Every day, ten to fifteen thousand cars cross the UAE-Oman border at
Al Ain city at the Eastern frontier. To deal with this heavy traffic of mainly cross-border
commuters, Abu Dhabi customs and Omani customs officers synchronise operations and
coordinate inspection of cars to ensure smooth border crossing and to get the most out of their
limited inspection resources at the border.
Besides the above mentioned bilateral arrangements, the GCC countries also collaborate in the
field of fiscal controls. For example, automated reconciliation of customs duties means that if
one GCC country imported a car, the duty would be paid in the country of the first entry. After
the car gets exported to another GCC state, the country of the first entry should send the
customs duties to the country of the car’s final destination. So if one pays duties in Jeddah and
the car is going to UAE, the Saudi customs sends the collected duties to the UAE customs.128
International exchange of intelligence
Abu Dhabi customs contributes to and benefits from international exchange of customs-
relevant intelligence. The risk management directorate of the Abu Dhabi customs receives
intelligence from many sources. This improves profiling and targeting of cross-border cargo
and passenger movements.129 At the emirate and national level, the risk management
directorate exchanges information and intelligence with other border control agencies in Abu
Dhabi and elsewhere in the UAE, especially with police forces. Internationally, the Abu Dhabi
risk management directorate is also well connected to the WCO Regional Intelligence Liaison
Office (RILO) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, via a liaison office.
Abu Dhabi customs has a good relationship also with the Saudi Arabian customs at the UAE-
Saudi border. At the Ghuwaifat-Al Bat'ha border crossing, at the North-West corner of the Abu
Dhabi, directors at both sides of the border exchange information and intelligence on a regular
basis. If there is a suspicious shipment about to cross the border, the Saudi customs alert their
colleagues at the Abu Dhabi side of the border, and the other way round. Information gets also
exchanged higher up in the organisational hierarchy, at a more strategic level, at customs
meetings with other GCC countries in Riyadh and also at various WCO meetings around the
world.
127 Abu Dhabi Customs Administration expert interview, 2016
128 Abu Dhabi Customs Administration expert interview, 2016
129 The risk management system calculates risk scores of cross-border cargo movements and categorises them into green,
yellow, and red channels. Customs officers at the border inspect cargo based on this colour coding.