14. My speciality. Customs inspector

Lead-in:

1. Goods Management – товарознавство

2. Customs Activity – митна справа

3. cargo – вантаж

4. to prevent smuggling – запобігти контрабанди

5. various duties – різноманітні збори

6. drug law enforcement – виконання закону про наркотики

I am a student of the faculty of Marketing, Trade an Customs Activity at Donetsk State University of Economics and Trade named after M. Tugan-Baranovsky. There are 3 departments here: the department of Marketing, Goods Management and Customs Activity.

My speciality is Customs inspector. Until recently Ukraine had no institution to train Customs specialists. But now some higher educational establishments, and Donetsk State University of Economics and Trade among them, train such specialists.

The work of Customs inspectors is very important and many-sided. They deal with passengers, cargoes, transport. The passengers going through customs have to declare certain items they are bringing into the country. Customs inspectors are trained to recognize the passengers who are carrying things into a country illegally to prevent smuggling.

As with merchandise processing, modern computer technology and communications are being used extensively to facilitate the processing of the ever - increasing numbers of travellers entering different countries.

Besides, working with passengers, checking imports and exports there are many other types of work done by Customs inspector. They control payments of various duties, see that appropriate licences are held, inspect the books and accounts and see that the right amount of tax is paid.

According to Customs regulations, one of the duties of a Customs inspector is to prevent drug smuggling. Drug smuggling is a very serious problem nowadays. Drug traffickers use any and every means of transport to smuggle drugs from source area to their market destination.

There are many effective ways of detecting cases of drug smuggling but the best tool for drug law enforcement is a well-trained and experienced Customs experts. The majority of the drugs seized resulted from the work of such officers.

In order to be specialists our students study foreign languages, mathematics, chemistry, psychology. Cooperation between Customs services in different countries is an important element in this work, that is why foreign languages are very important for Customs inspectors. Besides, great attention is paid to special subjects.

I like my future speciality and I think that we, young specialists, must do all we can to meet the requirements of Ukraine in full.

Questions for comprehension check-up and discussion:

1. What is the name of your faculty?

2. What are the names of your faculty’s departments?

3. What is the name of your speciality?

4. What is the work of Customs inspectors connected with?

5. What is the most important duty of Customs inspectors?

6. What subjects do you study?