TAIPEI: Taiwan and Finland have signed a cooperation arrangement to jointly fight customs fraud, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced on Friday.
The agreement was signed on Thursday in Helsinki by Customs Administration Director Liao Chao-hsiang and his Finnish counterpart Antti Hartikainen, director general of Finnish Customs, MOFA said in a statement.
The signing ceremony was joined by officials from Taiwan’s representative office in Finland. It is worth noticing that the R.O.C. flag and Finnish flag were seen at the signing ceremony, as shown in a photo released by Customs Administration on Friday.
It is rare sight given the fact that the countries do not have official diplomatic ties. According to the administration, the agreement was signed during an ongoing three-day visit by a Taiwanese delegation led by Liao.
Both sides had engaged in dialogue following the signing ceremony to enhance cooperation to combat customs fraud, it said in a released statement.
The pact is expected to pave way for closer collaboration in providing each other with mutual support and assistance in tracking the movement of commercial goods suspected to be in breach of customs legislation.
The latest pact came after Taiwan signed an administrative cooperation arrangement on the same issue with the European Anti-Fraud Office in November 2016.
Government statistics show Finland is Taiwan’s 12th largest trading partner in the European Union.
