Articles under section " Dossier: measuring performance "

Everywhere I have been these last few months, I have seen new technologies being deployed, new practices being implemented, and new projects being launched with the objective of transforming ideas into concrete results to serve the public interest. Customs is truly a world of change. In order for th...

The WCO Performance Measurement Mechanism (WCO PMM) The WCO has developed many self-assessment tools, enabling Customs administrations to determine where they stand with respect to the adoption of WCO standards and recommended practices, and to monitor how Customs clearance is being carried out, as ...

In 2023, when developing its 2024-2027 Strategic Plan and mapping out its vision for the future and how it was going to get there, the Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS) undertook an analysis of its environment, operations and processes. Four core strategic areas were consequently formulated in the Plan...

A new system The WCO PMM is structured around four areas: Trade Facilitation and Economic Competitiveness; Revenue Collection; Enforcement, Security and Protection of Society; and Organizational Development. The first version of the WCO PMM (PMM v.1) includes a limited set of 23 expected outcome...

International trade has long played a crucial role in promoting economic development and fostering poverty alleviation among the least developed and developing economies. Countries, economic groupings and the World Trade Organization (WTO), recognizing the beneficial impact of fair and equitable int...

In this article, the authors build upon the previous one, titled Assessing the clearance process: India shares its experience, which was published in 2018[1] and which presented major highlights of India’s early experience in measuring average release times, including methodologies used, bottlenec...

Import Release Time – consistent improvement With NTRS 2024 currently under preparation, the paper relies on NTRS 2023 to present average export and import release time data for four modes of trade, based on a sample study of four seaports, six air cargo complexes, three Inland Container Depots (I...

Article 7.6.1 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) encourages World Trade Organization Members “to measure and publish their average release time of goods periodically and in a consistent manner, using tools such as, inter alia, the Time Release Study (TRS) of the World Customs Organization�...

Port of Walvis Bay It was indeed decided that the TRS should be conducted at the Port of Walvis Bay, given the high volume of imports and exports passing through the port owing to its strategic position. The port serves as a vital link for the Southern African sub-regions and beyond, primarily thr...

The Oshoek/Ngwenya border The border posts connecting the towns of Oshoek in South Africa and Ngwenya in Eswatini are known for long queues of trucks which end up blocking road traffic and negatively impacting both travellers and traders. Around 120 trucks per day flow into Oshoek, transporting ...

Both South Africa and Eswatini are partner countries of the WCO Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme, which is funded by the United Kingdom’s His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC). The WCO capacity building was part of the Programme’s multi-year strategic partnership with both coun...

Key findings On 20 May 2024, the TRS final report which sets out the findings and outlines the way forward towards desired reforms was launched during a public event. All stakeholders agreed on their shared responsibility to improve border processes and on the need to conduct regular TRSs to assess ...

Beijing Re-code Trade Security and Facilitation Research Centre, an independent not-for-profit research institute, has been evaluating trade facilitation progress made in China since 2016. The findings of this annual evaluation are published in the Trade Facilitation Annual Report of China (in both...

The expert team carried out the evaluation which is both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative evaluation The qualitative evaluation is based on the structure of the TFA, which includes 11 articles and 65 paragraphs, with certain paragraphs containing items, sub-items and further sub-items (th...

The quantitative assessment results for the year 2023, as published in the Trade Facilitation Annual Report of China 2024 Edition, are shown in Table 1 below. Table 1: Scores for first-level indicators and second-level indicators ...

Changes from 2019 to 2024 The evaluation shows that, out of the 145 requirements of the TFA, 133 have been implemented to an adequate degree or fairly adequate degree in China, while one provision has not been implemented and eleven provisions have not been implemented to an adequate degree or fai...

The WCO Customs Integrity Perception Survey (CIPS) makes it possible to check how a Customs administration is perceived by its own staff and by individuals who engage with them in the areas of promoting integrity and combating corruption. Thus, the CIPS is an instrument that can help improve the ca...

The metrics used to assess performance under each indicator are similar for both questionnaires. The main metric used is the extent of agreement with a specific statement, along a 4-point scale ranging from “Strongly agree” to “Strongly disagree”. A second metric employed regularly throughou...

Accountability in operations and programme management has been a principal feature of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) programme since its inception in November 2001. The CTPAT programme is the United States’ Authorized Economic Opera...

Internal oversight CBP has a formal oversight process that delineates the CTPAT programme goals, objectives and deliverables. The Government Performance Results Act Modernization Act (GPRAMA), one of a series of laws designed to improve government performance management, guides CTPAT’s oversight...

For many years, Maersk, a company that provides shipping, logistics and trade consultancy services, has supported a number of research projects. This article offers a snapshot of a forthcoming academic paper that examines and proposes an explanation for the levels of utilization of preferential tar...

EU-Korea FTA To test this prediction, we decided to carry out a study by focusing, in particular, on one agreement and on the use of preferential treatment at HS chapter level (first 2 digits of commodity tariff codes). We chose the agreement between the Republic of Korea and the European Union (...