Jun 29, 2005: First ad hoc Customs & Transportation Committee meeting

On numerous requests from AmCham member companies that followed the success of the keynote address by Leonid Lozbenko, deputy head of the Federal Customs Service, at AmCham Annual Meeting on March 31 and the roundtable with the Northwest Customs on April 19, the Chapter initiated creating a new Customs & Transportation Committee, which was announced by Treasurer Slava Vlasov of PricewaterhouseCoopers at the General Membership Meeting on May 31.

On June 29, 30 AmCham member companies‘ representatives convened in AmCham office at the first ad hoc committee meeting to discuss the new committee‘s structure and agenda. It was unanimously agreed that the committee should meet on a regular - monthly - basis, the next meeting with co-chairs elections being tentatively scheduled for late July - early August.

Among the issues discussed and put on the new committee‘s agenda, there were:

• importing equipment as a contribution to capital;
• import processing relief;
• implementation of electronic declarations;
• customs risk management systems;
• St. Petersburg sea port.

(The minutes of the first meeting along with the call for nominations to be distributed among AmCham members within the next few days.)