A look at how authorities in Croatia Customs facilitate clean trade, by supporting the access of enforcement authorities to FTZ to conduct their regulatory and oversight responsibilities. This presentation was delivered at the Transparency in Free Trade Zones meeting, on September 29, 2017. For more information, please see http://www.oecd.org/governance/risk/

1. PORT OF RIJEKA
•Generallay about Port of Rijeka from
customs prospective
•Organization and working processes in
the Port of Rijeka
•Generally about Free zone
•Advantages and disadvantages in a free
zone in Rijeka port
•Conclusions
Natalia Fraćin , Regional Customs Office
Rijeka

2. Generally about port of Rijeka
- Due to geographical position, port of Rijeka enables the quickest way
between mid european countries and far East and vice versa.
- Port of Rijeka has a special significance for non maritime countries in the
region (Hungary, Austria,Slovakia,Czech R.,Serbia and BiH).
- Northadriatic traffic direction has a huge advantage for ships arriving
through Suez canal:
- More than 2000 nautical miles closer then north EU ports
- Shortened duration of navigation is 5-7 days in relation to north EU
ports.
- Decreases transport costs.
- Port of Rijeka accepts diferent kind of cargo on its diferent locations.

3. Port of Rijeka – geostrategical position

4. - Port of Rijeka has 5 terminals on 5 different locations
- (4 locations are situated in a free zone)
PORT TERMINALS
Rijeka-Žabica AGCT Bakar Bršica Škrljevo
Gen.
cargo
Wheat,
soybean
reefer wood container
terminal
Steel,
coal
cattle
wood
background
terminal

5. - Port of Rijeka company
- specialized for handling general cargo
- operates on the basis of the concession contract signed up till
2042.
- Port of Rijeka company is the largest dry cargo operater in Croatia (more
than 4 milion of tons realoded cargo on a yearly basis)
- 4 terminals (Žabica, Bakar , Škrljevo, Bršica)
AGCT company
- main container terminal in Rijeka
- concession contract till 2041.
- ongoing efforts to raise the level of service
Free zone concessionaires

6. FRIGO STORAGE
ANNUAL CAPACITY: 100.000 t
BASIC ACTIVITY:
Manipulation with tropical fruit, frozen meat and
perishable goods

7. Silo
ANNUAL CAPACITY 1000,000 t
BASIC ACTIVITY:
reloading and storage of
oilseeds

8. TERMINAL BAKAR
bulk cargo
ANNUAL CAPACITY:4 .000.000 t
BASIC ACTIVITY:
Manipulation with coal
Can accept Panamax and Capesize category
of ships

9. TERMINAL Škrljevo
Warehouses:28.160 m2
Open space: 130.000 m2
Multimodal terminal with
direct access to thehighway
and rail

10. AGCT container terminal
Annual capacity: 600.000 TEU
Lenght of mooring 1 - 300 m;
Sea depth - 11,7 m;
Lenght of mooring 2 - 326 m;
Sea depth - 14,5 m.

11. Ownership structure of AGCT-a:
• 51% - ICTS Inc.,international cont terminal services (global operater of
cont terminals from Filipines)
• 49% - Port of Rijeka company
Installed equipment:
– 2 Panamax cont crans;
– 2 post Panamax cont crans;
– 6 RTG (storage transhipment bridges);
– 2 RMG (rail transhipment bridges)
BIP (border inspection point)-phytosanitary inspection station
Adriatic Gate Container Terminal

12. Container traffic -2011.....130 052 TEU
 -2012....126 680TEU
 -2013.....131 310 TEU
 - 2014 ....149 000 TEU
 -2015.....161.883 TEU
 -2016.......177.134 TEU

13. AGCT container terminal
-IT system NAVIS for monitoring unloaded cont in
which customs officers have an access
-the biggest ship on cont terminal was 367 m long
with capacity of 10 150 TEU

14. Shipping companies Representatives of the shipping lines
CMA CGM CMA CGM CROATIA
COSCO DRAGON MARITIME ADRIA d.o.o.
CSCL Intereuropa d.o.o., Agency office
Rijeka
EVERGREEN TRADEWAYS d.o.o., Koper
HAPAG LOYD ADRIATIKAGENT
MAERSK LINE Maersk Croatia d.o.o.
MSC MSC CROATIA d.o.o.
NYK LINE N-LOGISTIKA Ltd.
SAFEMARINE Safmarine
SAEGO LINE East Adriatic Sales Seago Line
UASC Interliner Agencies
YANG MING GATE EXPRESS d.o.o.
CONTAINER SHIPPING LINES IN THE
PORT OF RIJEKA

15. CARGO
- dispatching the cargo- mostly by road (highway
Rijeka-Zagreb enabled better road connection)
- dispatching by rail – insufficient investments in
railway infrastructure hampers the development of
the port

16. - CENTRAL OFFICE (DIRECTORATE)
- 4 REGIONAL CUSTOMS OFFICES
(ZAGREB,RIJEKA,OSIJEK ,SPLIT)
- 18 CUSTOMS OFFICES
- 10 BORDER CUSTOMS OFFICES
ORGANIZATION OF CROATIAN
CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION

17. LEGAL BASIS
-Law on free zone
-Instructions 17/2016 presents implementation of customs
control measures under the goods incoming and outgoing
from free zone and specific procedures for goods outgoing
via sea ports
-Law on implementation of EU customs legislation
-Regulation 952/2013 of Eu parliament and Eu Council
- Regulation 2446/2015 and 2447/2015
FREE ZONE

18. - It is a part of teritory of the Republic of Croatia which is specially fenced and where
economic activities are carried out under special condition and customs surveillance
- Free zones can be established in the area of a seaport , riverport,airport and at any
other area where there are conditions for it
- On the basis of concession contract, concession for
establishing the free zone is provided by government
- Activities within the free zone: production of goods,storage of
- goods,wholesale trade, refining of goods
- The applicant for the establishment of a FZ must state the economic and
- financal justification of the request
- Carrying in and out of the goods and storage of the goods in a FZ are carried out with
the customs provisions
FREE ZONE

19.  ADVANTAGES
- goods can be stored for an unlimited time (duration of stay
can be controlled by customs through the system)
- Concessionaries do not need to have bank guarantee for
the possible customs debt like for customs warehouses
- Easy access to concessionaires IT system by customs (very
- good control mechanism)
- Easier way for submitting customs documents (only
- through the system)
PORT OF RIJEKA FREE ZONE

20.  DISADVANTAGES
- In a case of Rijeka port FZ we have 4 different
- locations- we have dispersity of the zone and when there is
a need of relocation cont in between the locations – there
is an extra paper work to be done- T1 –transit doc.
- There are no tax exemptions (that is why there is no
- production of goods inside FTZ)- previous legislation on FZ
had tax exmption (concessionaires were not obliged to
pay tax for their equipment and production was exempted
from certain taxes)
- -
PORT OF RIJEKA FREE ZONE

21.  - incoming goods must be submitted in safety entry
declaration through IT system only ina case when
port of Rijeka is the first port of entry in EU
 - cargo agents send to customs cargo manifests 24
hours before the ships arrival
 - upon ships arrival shipping agents must submit
incoming manifest
 -cargo agents submit storage documents only
through the system
INCOMING GOODS IN THE FZ
IN MARITIME TRAFFIC

22.  -outgoing goods must be submitted in safety exit
declaration in IT system
 -prior to loading cont on the ship, at least one hour in
advance, shipping agent submit outgoing manifest
with all necessary atachments (cargo manifests,
export SAD, T1..)
 -customs officers check in compliance of the data
with submitted documents
OUTGOING GOODS FROM FZ IN
MARITIME TRAFFIC

23.  - TRANSPARENCY in economic activities in FZ of Rijeka
port is provided by keeping records of the goods by
concessionaire acording Union customs code and Law
on FZ
 Records must be available to the customs autorithies
for the purpose of identifying the goods
 In the same time customs runs simplified
documentation of the goods in the IT system and use
it as a tool to control concessionaires records
CONCLUSIONS

24.  Port of Rijeka is a transit port
 Most of the incoming shipments in maritime traffic
are transported to the inland customs offices, other
MS or to the third countries (Serbia an BiH) by trucks
(70 % of shipments), 20% is transported by rail, 10% is
cleared in Rijeka
 Most of outgoing shipments in maritime traffic are EU
goods cleared for export
 Transhipment is very rare
CONCLUSIONS

25. -CUSTOMS MONITOR the follow up of shipments, regardless
in which procedure shipment will be put in FZ (transit or
clearance procedure)
-that is how we prevent the MISUSE of FZ to commit illicit
trade
-customs enforce REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS with correct
apply prescribed procedures ,provisions and laws
-perform physical controls
-try to avoid enforcment gaps
CONCLUSIONS

26.  - CUSTOMS enforce legislation and give recommendation
for changes if we notice iregularityor enforcment gap
(customsis not a policymaker)
 -FTZ may be a complicating factor in risk profiling if we
have a doubt about shipment and cantf follow up the
shipment , if we dont know the POL (in some FZ goods are
reloaded so we cant trace the shipment)
 -sometimes we dont know if the port from which goods
come is established as FZ
CONCLUSIONS

27. SIGNIFICANT SEIZURES
Containers with counterfeit goods
 Over 250.000 pcs of counterfeit goods seized

28. SIGNIFICANT SEIZURES
10,200,000 pcs of BRASS Cigarettes
 Declared goods: 383 packs of roll compressed and flat
packed mattresses (formerly known as cover load)
 Consignee - Newly established small Hungarian company
 Consignee address - the law firm in Budapest
 First shipment for the consignee

29. SIGNIFICANT SEIZURES
10,200,000 pcs of BRASS Cigarettes
 X-ray examination indicated cigarettes
 The cover load was not found

30. Thank you for your attention
Natalia Fraćin