A joint meeting between the federal government and the KRG on mechanisms for unifying procedures at border crossings

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Planning, Muhammad Ali Tamim, chaired today, Monday, the second meeting of the joint ministerial committee, between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, concerned with developing appropriate mechanisms for managing border crossings in accordance with the constitution and the law. The meeting was attended, according to a statement by the Minister of Planning, Muhammad Ali Tamim, the Minister of Interior, Abdul Amir Al-Shammari, the Minister of Housing and Construction, Bankin Rikani, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Naeem Al-Aboudi, and Minister of Justice, Khaled Shwani, while from the Kurdistan Regional Government, it was attended by the Ministers of Interior, Reber Ahmed, and Minister of Finance, Awat Janab. During the meeting, the minutes of the previous meeting were discussed and agreed upon what was stated in the minutes, related to reviewing the procedures for unifying customs policy at all border crossings (land, sea, an d airports), and proposing the necessary decisions to implement what was stated in the ministerial curriculum in this regard. The two sides also agreed to develop a comprehensive vision for implementing customs policy, product protection laws, and related decisions, as well as working on reviewing the mechanisms for implementing the Border Ports Authority Law of 2016, and proposing the necessary treatments to enable the Authority to perform its tasks. The meeting was also attended by Lieutenant General Sami Al-Sudani, Advisor to the Prime Minister, Chairman of the Border Ports Authority, Major General Ibrahim Jawad Khalaf, Director General of the Legal Department in the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, Kazem Karim Ali, and a number of general directors and advisors in the General Authority for Taxes and Customs, and border crossings from the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government. Source: National Iraqi News Agency