English for customs officers

and greater awareness of the potential for drug smuggling to prevent additional expense and delays to the airport and its customers the collaboration will enable improved targeting of high-risk traffic missing delay and inconveniences to legitimate trade and transport airport staff as well as staff from other agencies and organizations working with aircraft and cargo operations will have increased awareness of drug smuggling and may help increase detection rates the airport will also be advised by Customs on how it can prevent its facilities being used by drug smugglers security and control procedures will be regularly reviewed to minimize unauthorized access to airport premises equipment and cargo shipment new rapid alert systems on drug detection will be set up the State Customs Committee regularly issues reviews of the development of drug seizures at Minsk National Airport it also updates the information on new security rules restricting the amount of certain categories of goods this information is disseminated by means of posters, panels, leaflets available to the public at the airport or distributed through tourist agencies, airlines and other interested bodies.

VI. Translate into English.

1.Практическое значение таможенного права определяется тем, что по мере развития международных отношений, увеличения объема товарооборота между нашей страной и странами мирового сообщества все большее число граждан зависят от состояния таможенной системы и законности таможенной деятельности.

2.В современном представлении термин «таможенное дело» охватывает сложный комплекс отношений, непосредственно связанных с внешней и внутренней политикой и деятельностью государства. В рамках государственной политики таможенное дело служит удовлетворению разнообразных интересов и потребностей.

3.Основной целью таможенной политики любого государства является обеспечение его экономических интересов.

4.Таможенная служба Республики Беларусь имеет достаточный опыт защиты экономического суверенитета и безопасности государства, внутреннего рынка, отечественной торговли и промышленности.

30

VII. Read the text and translate it using the dictionary

HISTORY OF THE U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE

The U.S. Customs Service has a long history. With ratification by the necessary number of states, the Constitution of the United States went into effect on March 4, 1789. A bit more than four months later, on July 31 of that year, the U.S. Customs Service started operating, among the very first of the federal agencies to come to life. It was given a life-and- death mission.

The young nation was then on the brink of bankruptcy. The first Congress and President Washington agreed that the collection of duties on imported goods was essential if the United States were to survive.

Only a few days after Customs drew its first breath, on August 5, 1789, the power of the service went from theory to reality when Captain James Weeks sailed his brigatine, Persis, into New York harbor with a miscellaneous cargo from Leghorn, Italy. The duty on the cargo – the first payment ever made to the United States Treasury – was $774.41.

While the payment was modest, it was the initial fiscal prop for a very young and shaky government. More was to come. In its first year of operation, the service collected over $2 million in duties. And for the next 124 years – until that moment in 1913 when the amendment authorizing the income tax was approved – Сustoms remained a major source of revenue for the federal government. Thus the Customs Service, especially in the early years of the nation, proved the truth of that profound maxim: «the revenue of the state is the state».

On March 1, 2003, U.S. Customs and Border Protection became the nation's first comprehensive border security agency with a focus on maintaining the integrity of the nation's boundaries and ports of entry.

As the world's first full-service border entity, CBP takes a comprehensive approach to border management and control, combining Customs, immigration, border security, and agricultural protection into one coordinated and supportive activity.

VIII. What do these numbers and dates mentioned in the text refer to?

31

IX. Mark these statements as True (T) or False (F).

1.The Constitution of the USA went into effect on July 31, 1789.

2.The agency faces four strategic challenges.

3.In its first year of operation the service collected over $2 million in duties.

4.Customs remained a major source of revenue for the federal government until the income tax was approved.

5.The U.S. Customs Service was among the very first of the federal agencies to come to life.

X.Read the text and translate it using the dictionary

HISTORY OF THE UK CUSTOMS SERVICE

In the Kingdom of England, customs duties were typically part of the customary revenue of the king, and therefore did not need parliamentary consent to be levied, unlike excise duty, land tax, or other forms of taxes.

The Board of Customs, responsible for collecting His or Her Majesty's Customs, had a very long history. Originally, the term Сustoms meant any customary payments or duties of any kind (for example, to the king, or a bishop, or the church), but later became restricted to duties payable to the king on the import or export of goods. The centralised English Сustoms system can be traced to the Winchester Assize of 1203, in the reign of King John, from which time сustoms were to be collected and paid to the State Treasury. Legislation concerning Сustoms can be traced to King Edward I. Under the nova custuma in 1275, Collectors of Customs were appointed by Royal patent and, in 1298 they were appointed in certain ports to collect customs for the Crown. The first Customs officers were appointed in 1294.

A Board of Customs was effectively created by ordinance on 21 January 1643, under which the regulation of the collection of customs was entrusted to a parliamentary committee.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the part of Board of Customs, is a non-ministerial department of the British Government primarily responsible for the collection of taxes and the payment of some forms of state support.

32

HMRC was formed by a merger of the Inland Revenue and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise and came into formal existence on 18 April 2005. The department's logo is the St.

Edward's Crown enclosed within a circle. «We are responsible for making sure that the money is available to fund the UK's public services and for helping families and individuals with targeted financial support. Through our Customs service we facilitate legitimate trade and protect our economic, social and physical security».

XI. Answer the following questions:

1.What were the Сustoms duties part of?

2.What was The Board of Customs responsible for?

3.What did the word «customs» mean originally?

4.What events happened in 1275 and 1298?

5.When was HMRC founded?

6.What is HMRC responsible for?

XII. Study the following text.

New Zealand Customs Service National Call Centre was opened in 1996. The Call Centre has been designed to answer all general enquiries from clients by employing experienced Customs officers and supporting their experience with a computer based business support tool which covers details like exchange rates, tariff, publications, contracts, prohibitions, etc. The tool provides quick access to information, assisting in answering all general enquiries.

Imagine you have opened such a telephone line in your Customs. What are your answers to the following questions:

1.How do I import a motor vehicle?

2.How do I import animal skins?

3.I'm a methadone user travelling overseas. I want the correct procedure for exporting a controlled drug.

4.How can I export a Christmas tree to my friends in France?

33

5. What is today's exchange rate?

XIII. Ethos [ˈiːθɔs] is the set of ideas and moral attitudes that are typical of a particular group. Read the ethos of US Customs and Border Protection. Speculate about what the ethos of the Belarusian Customs Service might be.

ETHOS

Our shared identity, beliefs and aspirations...

We are the guardians of our Nation's borders. We are America's frontline.

We safeguard the American homeland at and beyond our borders.

We protect the American people against terrorists and the instruments of terror.

We steadfastly enforce the laws of the United States while fostering our Nation's economic security through lawful international trade and travel.

We serve the American people with vigilance, integrity, and professionalism.

XIV. Answer the questions.

You can use: In my opinion ..., I think ..., I don’t think I’m against....

I'm in favour of..., I don’t agree with....

1.What would happen if there were no Customs?

2.What would happen if heroin were legal everywhere in the world?

3.What would happen if every Customs administration leader were a woman?

4.What would happen if there were no laws against IPR?

5.What would happen if computers replaced Customs officers?

XV. If you were Chairman of the State Customs Committee of the Belarusian Customs Service what changes would you introduce in the Customs Service?

34

DO IT FOR FUN

Exercise your brains by solving these puzzles.

1.

2.

3.

4.

35

5.

1 = t

6.

1 = r

7.

8

36

UNIT 2. CUSTOMS CONTROL. PASSENGER CONTROL

Study the following words and word combinations from the text.

TEXT 2.1. DUAL-CHANNEL SYSTEM

All of goods, transporting through the Customs are subject to Customs control. The Revised Kyoto Convention (WCO 1999) defines Customs control as «the measures applied by Customs to ensure compliance with Customs law»1.

1 The Revised Kyoto Convention.

37

The dual-channel or red/green system is a simplified Customs control which enables Customs authorities to improve the flow of passenger traffic through the border; to deal efficiently with the increasing number of passengers without reducing the effectiveness of the control and without a corresponding increase in the number of Customs staff. It is compatible with the application of other controls unless the circumstances require full control of all passengers and their baggage.

The dual-channel system should be operated as outlined below.

The system shall allow the passengers to choose between two types of channels:

a)one (green channel) for passengers having with them no goods or only goods which can be admitted free of import duties and taxes and which are not subject to import prohibitions or restrictions; and

b)the other (red channel) for other passengers.

Each channel shall be clearly and distinctively marked so that the choice between them can easily be understood by passengers. The basic distinctive marking shall be:

a)for the channel referred to as «green» - the words «Nothing to declare»;

b)for the channel referred to as «red» - the words «Goods to declare».

In addition, the channels should be identified by an inscription including the word «Customs».

Passengers must be sufficiently well informed to choose between the channels. For this purpose it is important: a) that passengers be informed about the functioning of the system and about the descriptions and quantities of goods they may have with them when using the green channel. This may be done by means of posters or panels at the airport or by means of leaflets available to the public at the airport or distributed through tourist agencies, airlines and other interested bodies;

b)that the route to the channels be clearly sign-posted.

As for airports the channels shall be located beyond the baggage delivery area so that passengers have all their baggage with them when choosing their channel. Moreover, the channels shall be so arranged that the passenger flow from that area to the airport exits is as direct as possible.

38

The distance between the baggage delivery area and the entrance to the channel shall be sufficient to allow passengers to decide which channel to choose and to move into that channel without causing congestion.

Passengers who have selected the green channel shall not be subject to any other Customs formalities unless they are the subject of a spot check; in the red channel, passengers shall accomplish the formalities required by Customs.

EXERCISES

I. Find the verbs and phrases in the text which correspond to the following definitions.

1.make something not so complicated

2.give authority to do something

3.make or become better

4.be opposed to something in character

5.be liable, dependent

6.give, send out

7.achieve, complete

II. Match left to the right to make a word/phrase combination taken from the text.

39