Note on May 2003 GUUAM meeting

This is a note prepared by Mika on the following meeting which he attended:

The Second GUUAM – USA Expert Meeting on Trade and Transport Facilitation
6 and 7 May 2003
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ukraine

The second GUUAM – USA Expert meeting was attended by the five GUUAM countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova) and the following observers: Bulgaria, Romania, Germany and the EU delegation. Representatives of OSCE, TTFSE, WB, and TRACECA also attended the meeting.

The Ukrainian Chairman opened the meeting and gave a brief background on GUUAM cooperation. GUUAM wished to establish a transport corridor from Uzbekistan to Austria – and address issues, such as trade and transport facilitation, security, border and customs control, combating terrorism and organized crime as well as drugs trafficking.

Based on the Kiev Protocol (of the meeting of the Heads of Customs Agencies of the GUUAM Participating States, 11 February 2003), there were already some projects under development:
- Harmonization of legislation regarding border crossing in the participating states
- Standardization of IT equipment and systems used for processing data on border crossing
- Trade policy and organizational support (with Chambers of Commerce)
- Export and import regulations

The work was being conducted jointly with US Technical Assistance aiming at larger-scale support from WB. A Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the area was being prepared as a result of an ambassadorial meeting that had been held on 5 May. This would lead to the establishment of a GUUAM secretariat (Joint Information Office) in Kiev. The US would pay the running costs of the Office while each participating state would assign a Liaison Officer at its own cost. Additional support would be acquired from the participating governments and organizations such as SECI.

The current president of the GUUAM Group, Mr Grigol Kotanadze (Georgia) thanked the participating countries for better coordination after the initial difficulties. Georgia was keen to get the cooperation going more actively. However, the role of support from other international organizations would need to be secured, including the United Nations, OSCE as well as countries such as Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Concrete project proposals were being awaited.

Mr Pavel Pashko (Ukraine, Customs) highlighted the need in the countries for customs cooperation and welcomed the GUUAM initiative. An inter-departmental group on customs and security had already been established at a high government level in Ukraine.

Anatoly Zoricki (Frontier Guars) emphasized the security issues as part of GUUAM operations. Information exchange based on a single technological cycle between the participating countries should be given a high priority.

Mr Markey (USA) reconfirmed the intention of the US to continue cooperation with GUUAM. A constructive dialogue had been going on for three years and now concrete projects were needed. In September 2002, a joint US – GUUAM initiative had called for action to increase security and enhance cooperation among the participating countries, based on a framework programme focusing on the protection of revenue, trade and transport facilitation and customs cooperation, largely in cooperation with SECI. In addition, a GUUAM Law Enforcement Centre was being planned (following a SECI model), possibly with special WB loans for GUUAM for the forthcoming 3 years. Work in inter-parliamentary working groups was also envisaged in the area of the harmonization of legislation.

Mr David Harrel (a retired US Customs officer) was on a 2-week mission in Kiev to develop a plan for the trade and transport facilitation project. He was identifying the agencies related to border crossing as it was felt that all parties concerned would need to be involved. Activities to implement United Nations drugs conventions, WTO issues etc were envisaged. In addition to the establishment of the Liaison Office in Kiev, trade data automation, electronic data transfers and related facilities and equipment for processing and inspection were required for concrete activities at border crossing points.

Mr David Harrell explained the work done on job descriptions for the liaison officers. They would work at the GUUAM office in Kiev at the cost of their respective governments. The US would pay their housing and related costs (travel, per diem) during their stay. Two liaison officers (customs and border control) were envisaged from each participating country.

The Chairman explained that the meeting would need to agree on the recommendations. The liaison officers would work in Kiev at least for 3 months first. The GUUAM secretariat would provide them with office space & technology (IT, phone, fax).

The initial Terms of Reference (circulated at the meeting for review and finishing) contained the expected results for the first 3 months and would we revised at the end of the period. The results would include:
- a strategic plan on trade and transport faciliation
- website (or at least a proposal on the structure)
- proposal for cooperation with the WB (credit agreement)

The next steps would include:
- WB representative from Moldova to contact WB in Washington
- GUUAM and US channels to do the same
- UNECE to provide assistance in linking the GUUAM website to its relevant trade facilitation website
- Ukraina to estimate the costs of the GUUAM secretariat and the personnel on mission
- On 3 June a meeting of parlamentarians of GUUAM states would be held in Kiev where the Liaison Office would be officially launched.
- 18 – 20 May a meeting of the National Coordinators in Tbilisi would prepare that.

GUUAM secretariat & US:

o would provide weekly status reports to the governments
o deliverables would be presented to Presidents at the following Yalta Conference
o secretariat fully operational in September 2003
o job descriptions for the border guard (draft distributed at the meeting) and customs representatives to be finished asap
o The US experts would stay in Kiev for 6 weeks until mid June to finish the operationalization of the secretariat.
o Materials of the meeting would be forwarded to the participating states in a week’s time
o An implementation programme for 3 – 5 year project should be prepared
o The working groups in Kiev should put together an initial strategy that would be refined in the course of the work
o As the initial funds and time would be limited, there was a lot of pressure to should early success and positive results to convince the financing institutions. WB would expect to see a work plan and a strategy
o During the initial state, current existing work (projects, conventions, norms, procedures) would be reviewed to allow GUUAM to initiate work
o In 90 days’ time, an action plan for GUUAM would need to be finished and presented to WB.