The International Customs Student Association (ICSA) is a new platform for professional interaction of future experts, which has its' source in the annual international youth conference "i-Customs" and the PICARD Forum (Partnership in Customs Academic Research and Development). The main stakeholder and organizer of the Association is ITMO’s Faculty of the International Business and Law.
"i-Customs and PICARD are supervised by our students. To expand horizons and attract new people to the customs international team we initiated the ICSA," said Andrei Nikolaev, Сhair of the International Customs Student Association.
The association is a non-profit organization launched in 2016, when ITMO’s experts presented the idea of such international student platform to international colleagues at i-Customs Conference, which took place in May. Today it aims at making contacts between young customs specialists from different countries. According to Mr. Nikolaev, strong relationships between customs experts prevent misunderstanding caused by political prejudices.
ICSA’s administrative staff includes the so-called "national working groups" that consist of students from Russia, Ukraine, Poland and the Philippines. Heads of these groups serve as deputy heads of the Association. Currently, the ICSA negotiates with potential partners from China, Finland, Costa Rica and other countries.
The ICSA arranges PICARD Youth Forum and i-Customs Conference as well as publishes the i-Customs Journal. Using this platform, students from all over the world can present their articles and obtain professional judgement from leading customs experts. Specialists of the World Trade Organization head the advisory board of the Journal.
Mr. Nikolaev also commented on the importance of research work in the field of customs. Every day, tons of items are taken through customs: jewelry, rare animals, works of art, offending drugs and so forth. Each item has its' unique peculiarities that determine the approach to working with it. For instance, dealing with counterfeit goods includes many issues such as trademark imitation, fake medical drugs and many others. Smugglers always develop new technologies and methods, so customs experts have to stay a step ahead when creating modern expertize techniques. Those include physical, chemical and other tests. It means that a customs officer has to be well versed in physics, chemistry and math. It is also important to remember about economic aspects.
At the latest i-Customs conference, which took place in Manila, specialists discussed new technologies of illegal transporting of goods abroad and automated customs paperwork. According to Andrei Nikolaev, a report on e-customs system in Russia presented by ITMO’s student Roman Lapa attracted interest of international experts, as this paper clarified the electronic certification system of the Russian Federation.
"The ICSA is a place for informal meetings where all specialists who are interested in customs affairs receive up-to-date information about educational initiatives and forthcoming conferences. ICSA members can publish their articles in collaboration with students from other countries, so as to study any issue using different approaches," mentioned Andrei Nikolaev.
