Strategic Trade and Export Control Training (STECT) in North Macedonia

11-15 September 2023, Skopje, Nort Macedonia: The UNODC Passenger and Cargo Border Team (PCBT) continues the Strategic Trade and Export Control Training (STECT) cycle for frontline customs and police officers assigned to the Border Interagency Unit (BIU) at the Skopje International Airport.

The second phase of STECT aims to emphasize the importance of control of cross-border movement of strategic and dual-use goods exploring the risk of non-state actors exploiting the containerized supply chain, as is seen with drugs and other illicit commodities, to traffic or deliver weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or their component parts, comprising chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) materials.

Specifically, this segment of the training explored the topic of a cohesive mechanism to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit manufacturing and trafficking of firearms, missile, chemical and biological weapons, their parts and components and ammunition, fraud patterns and risk indicators and techniques in behavior analysis and observations. STECT contributes to exploring the relationship between effective profiling of all important export consignments and its implications for the economy and aims at building the capacity of customs and police administrations to detect illicit trade within the containerized supply chain through the detailed examination of pre-arrival information.

This training is provided by the UNODC Passenger and Cargo Border Team under the framework of the joint EU-UNODC action on promoting rule of law and good governance through targeted border control measures at ports and airports, funded by the European Union and conducted in cooperation with the Regional Programme for South Eastern Europe.