English for customs officers

3.Customs staff do not expect gifts from the business community. But representatives of industry and commerce may offer Customs staff small gifts and souvenirs.

4.Customs staff may sometimes be offered free tickets to sporting events, concerts and the like or may be invited to use facilities provided at such events by companies which have dealings with Customs.

5.There is no expectation that the business community will provide hospitality of any sort to Customs staff. Hospitality will not be accepted by Customs staff in the following circumstances:

– during any period of contract negotiation where the host is a bidder or a bidder's associate, or

– where the nature or frequency of the hospitality could lead an officer, management or the public to conclude that an attempt is being made to influence the officer.

6.Europeans usually prefer to ride backwards on a continental train, and Americans prefer to face the engine. It is not etiquette to talk with fellow passengers; in fact, it is very middle-class.

7.In the Latin countries, graceful facility of speech is an object of lifelong cultivation – and no one is considered an educated person who cannot speak several languages well. Those who speak fluently, are seldom those who constantly interlace their own language with words from another.

8.Here is a short list of the fundamentals of everyday ethics which all children should be taught:

– the courage to be truthful;

– the will to stand hurt, the creed of sportsmanship;

– to be cheerful, to be kind through understanding the rights and feelings of others and

– to practise the first requirement of good breeding, which is selfcontrol.

9.Line managers should have prime responsibility for identifying weaknesses in the integrity of their staff, and for taking steps to rectify such weaknesses.

10.Customs authorities should instill in their officers loyalty and pride in their service, an esprit de corps and a desire to co-operate in measures to reduce their exposure to the possibility of corruption.

11.The Arusha Declaration should be required bedtime reading for all Customs officials.

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VII. Translate into Russian.

1.Some people might define integrity as adherence to a code of values. Even the drug kingpins have a code of values, but do they have integrity? – The dictionary defines integrity as soundness of moral principle and character, uprightness, honesty. Employee integrity then could be defined as: soundness (of character) and adherence to the organization's code of values.

2.Life is made up not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, and many smiles and kindness, and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort.

3.The Customs Service expects officers to observe high standards of ethical behaviour in order to maintain public confidence in the integrity of the organization. Customs also expects that the business community will seek to gain an understanding of those ethical standards, and ensure that their own practices do not pressure Customs officers to depart from them but, rather, provide a supportive environment.

VIII. The sets of words and phrases below are related either to honesty or to dishonesty. Which word is different from the others in each set?

IX. Complete theses sentences with words and phrases from the sets above. Choose from the first set to complete sentence 1, from the second set to complete sentence 2, and so on.

1.Our company does nothing illegal. We are very_________.

2.We've got _______ which is used in countries where it is difficult to do business without offering bribes.

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3.Their car looked so much like our new model. We suspect _________.

4.They fired him because he was ________. He informed the press that the company was using under-age workers in the factory.

5.He denied accepting ______ when he gave the contract to the most expensive supplier.

6.I admire our chairman. He's a man of his word and is greatly respected for his ______.

7.Many companies ask new employees to sign _______ to avoid future litigation problems.

DO IT FOR FUN

I. Read the following information.

A company's internal code of ethics contains its ethical credo. A code of ethics goes beyond legal standards, which employees are required to abide by whether expressed or implied in their roles.

Mission statement is a declaration of the overall goal or purpose of an organization. It is a statement of the purpose of a company, organization or person, its reason for existing. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making. The mission statement formulates the company's purpose both for those in the organization and for the public. It's like a goal for what the company wants to do for the world.

Discuss these questions. Give your reasons. Supply some additional information.

1.What is the purpose of a business? Is it just to make money?

2.What do you understand by these phrases?

a.business ethics

b.a code of good practice

c.a mission statement

3. Should mission statements include statements about eihics?

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II. Are some jobs more ethical than others? How ethical do you think these professions are?

III. Work in groups. What should you do in each of these situations?

1.The best-qualified person for the post of Sales Manager is female. However, your customers would prefer a man. If you appoint a woman you will probably lose some sales.

2.Your company has a new advertising campaign which stersses its honesty, fairness and ethical business behaviour. It has factories in several countries where wages are very low. At present it is paying workers the local market rate.

3.A collegue working in a hospital has been making mistakes at work recently. This is because she has a serious illness. You are her friend and the only person at work who knows this. She has asked you to keep it a secret.

IV. Discuss the questions. Give your reasons. Supply some additional information.

1.Why is corruption more common in some countries than in others?

2.What are the consequences of corruption in your opinion?

V. Explain the meaning of the following proverbs in English and translate it into Russian:

Style is a dress of thoughts. (P. Stanhope1)

Manners make the man.

1 Philip Stanhope (1694–1773) – British statesman, diplomat.

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UNIT 11. CUSTOMS TECHNOLOGIES

Study the following words and word combinations from the text.

TEXT 11.1. TECHNICAL MEANS OF CUSTOMS CONTROL

Customs Administrations are responsible for facilitating trade while maintaining an appropriate level of control to prevent smuggling and other illegal Customs related activities. Today Customs Services have at their disposal a range of advanced technologies1 suitable for checkpoint, vehicle and suspect item inspection at airports, railways, ports and other border crossings. These technologies vary in terms of their intrusiveness and their levels of technical sophistication. They can be categorized as manual and low-tech equipment, intrusive detection technology (seals), and higher technology equipment (radiation detection pagers, and X-ray and gamma ray scanners). Each technology has its security-enhancing benefits as well as its potential drawbacks.

1 Technologies – new machines, equipment, and ways of doing things that are based on modern knowledge about science and computers.

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X-ray based inspection systems are the most common form of noninvasive inspection technology currently in use. The power source for X-ray systems is electrical, so the power can be turned on and off. X- rays detect differences in material densities to produce an image of the vehicle or container contents.

Due to the nature of X-ray methods, specific materials cannot be identified; but it is possible with gamma ray systems to detect specific materials like drugs and explosives.

For searching entire vehicles, Cargosearch, a giant X-ray machine, is used. Cargosearch is housed in an equipment building with an adjacent X-ray bay that vehicles are taken through by means of a transport mechanism.

The transport lifts the front of the vehicle about two inches off the cement and carries it through the bay, stopping automatically at the end of the scan.

It can rapidly scan a truck much more efficiently than hand searching, utilizing fewer inspectors per search.

When a suspect area is found, conventional means including the canine enforcement officer teams and inspectors armed with density meters, laser range finders, fiberoptic scopes and dielectrometers are used to further detect any contraband. After that comes the hard work of inspectors with metal saws, tire breakdown machines and cutting torches.

EXERCISES

I. Describe to your classmates one of the tools mentioned in the text without giving its name. Let your partner guess which tool you mean.

II. Match the words on the left (a–j) with their corresponding definitions on the right (1–10).

клепок

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Study the following words and word combinations from the text.

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TEXT 11.2. THE ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

IN THE IMPLEMENTATION

OF A MODERN CUSTOMS POLICY

Customs administrations today face a variety of political and administrative pressures and challenges. These include fluctuating workloads with static or declining resources, greater business expectations, and continuing pressures to meet government revenue, trade facilitation, social protection, and national security objectives. Moreover, Customs administrations are increasingly required to integrate their systems and procedures with the sophisticated global logistics networks used by international trade and transport operators. To cope

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with these pressures and challenges, the international Customs community looks to the applied use of information technologies (IT) as a means of improving organizational and operational efficiency and effectiveness. Customs Services in different countries today use varying degrees of automation to support core Customs functions such as goods declaration processing, revenue assessment, revenue collection, risk management, and management reporting.

The basic features of information technologies are the following:

•EDI release transmission;

•flexible service options for doing business;

•new ways to manage Customs' workload between offices across the country;

•automated decision support on the release of goods; and

•capability of identifying high-risk shipments.

Customs Services all over the world use a computerized imagery system for capturing photographic data in an electronic format which can then be viewed at other locations in the computer network. Imagery is used to build photographic databases of contraband concealment methods, wanted persons, fingerprints, copyrights, trademarks and similar data.

Information and communications technologies can substantially contribute to making Customs operations both more effective and more efficient. Every Customs service must attempt to implement the most advanced ICT appropriate for its particular circumstances.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has developed the Automated Targeting System (ATS). ATS is one of the most advanced targeting systems in the world.

ATS is an intranet-based enforcement and decision support tool that is the cornerstone for all CBP targeting efforts. As a decision support tool ATS compares traveler, cargo, and conveyance information against intelligence and other enforcement data by incorporating risk-based targeting scenarios and assessments. ATS standardizes names, addresses, conveyance names, and similar data so these data elements can be more easily associated with other business data and personal information to form a more complete picture of a traveler, import, or export in context with previous behavior of the parties involved. ATS is compatible with other databases. ATS also collects data from foreign governments. It can automatically download, sort and screen-manifest any entry data. This

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targeting system facilitates the flow of low risk cargo and concentrates the focus of inspectional enforcement assets on the cargo with the highest risk.

Canada Border Services Agency has developed Accelerated Commercial Release Operations Support System (ACROSS).

The system uses sophisticated electronic technology to streamline the way goods are imported into Canada. With ACROSS, importers and brokers exchange information electronically with the CBSA thereby eliminating the requirement to present paper release packages, subject to certain limitations.

By reducing the workload involved in the clearance of low-risk shipments, ACROSS enables goods to be released more efficiently and quickly. Importers spend less time dealing with the CBSA, which gives them more time to focus on their businesses.

The use of information technologies is an effective tool for risk management. It enables a more rapid analysis of selectivity criteria than would be possible manually. Automation allows Customs administrations to establish a national database of information on all transactions and movements which can be updated and used for rapid information sharing and identification of changing risk areas. It can also provide a database of all risk profiles which would form the basis for a selectivity module within an automated clearance system.

Automated systems allow Customs administrations to subject declarations to a series of selectivity filters to determine which declarations may require further examination.

The application of information technologies in Customs activity brings certain benefits:

•enhanced Customs control over international consignments

•improved control

•reduced cargo clearance times for the discharge of customs formalities

•closer cooperation with other border control agencies

•uniform application of Customs and other border-related legislation

•increased transparency and predictability for the business sector

•more efficient revenue collection and accounting

•more accurate and timely trade statistics

•more accurate information for risk management and post-clearance audit purposes.

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