Articles under section " Panorama "

Since 2015, Directors General of Customs and their executive teams have been able to participate in a ‘Top Executive Retreat,’ as a means of further strengthening their capacity in implementing change and in achieving organizational results. This article explains what a retreat is all about and...

Hackathons are no longer the exclusive domain of tech geeks. Several hundred big companies in other industries now organize them, including firms in industries as diverse as airlines, cars, telecommunications, beer and banking, as well as governmental and public institutions. Finnish Customs recent...

Illicit trade endangers the healthy structure of trade and industry, and requires constant vigilance from Customs administrations, which, due to their position at the border, play a critical role in combating this trade that causes enormous detriment to state revenues and that of industries around t...

Although the term has not been defined in international law, it is commonly held that light aviation comes under the heading of general aviation, a generic term covering all civil aviation operations other than commercial transport, in other words sports and leisure aviation, aerial work and private...

The General Administration of China Customs (hereinafter GACC) has been using large-scale non-intrusive inspection (NII) equipment to control containers and vehicles since 1991, which makes it among the first Customs administrations in the world to leverage such a technology. In 2014, faced with the...

Outcome of intensive efforts These impressive results are the fruit of intensive efforts and of efficient collaboration between the GACC and the regional offices. In the early stages, GACC conducted algorithm training and algorithm R&D based on the first eight digits of the goods nomenclature...

  E-commerce – the trade in goods and services via the Internet – has become a growing component of the global economy, and cross-border e-commerce a major topic of discussion for Customs authorities. Accordingly, the WCO has placed this subject high on its agenda, including: creating a de...

Gender equality is now a dominant theme throughout the world, and is being pursued in various ways by international organizations, governments and industry alike. The Customs world is no different as it tackles the issue, bolstered by ‘gender mainstreaming’ being part of the WCO’s approach to...

In mid-October 2023, French Customs launched a competition for its 16,546 officers. The aim was to provide a platform for competitors to showcase their implemented or developing innovative practices – in the form of working methods, processes or equipment – to their peers. Under the com...

Commenting on the initiative, the Director General[1] stated: “I firmly believe that many innovative practices have been implemented on the ground, and I feel that it is vital to establish a vehicle for highlighting and sharing these initiatives and for them to inject a positive dynamic into all C...

  The Central African Republic (CAR) gained independence in 1960, but has a chequered history of coups d’état and ongoing guerrilla attacks. In 2013, Séléka – a Muslim-dominated coalition of rebel groups from the north, which ousted the former President François Bozizé – became embro...

The health and wellness of our workforce is critical to the success of modern border management organizations. While the operating environments differ between each of our countries – for example, some of us work in an armed environment, or within different legal frameworks – we all share a commo...

In the 20-plus years since first being established in Singapore and Sweden, Single Windows (SWs) have remained the central focus of border clearance strategies. The implementation of such an environment is generally seen by trade experts around the world as a very practical means of improving borde...

Improving workplace productivity and helping people get their jobs done efficiently is critical for Customs administrations that have to deal with an increase in the number of cross-border movements, be it cargo or people. With a forecasted growth in trade and travel being driven by EXPO 2020, Dubai...

The system acts like a tiny coach sitting on a manager’s shoulder throughout the day. And every now and then, the coach whispers something like, “this person did something great recently,” or “this process could be improved.” The Productivity Engine produces a productivity score from four ...

Trade operators required to classify their goods in the Unified Customs Tariff of countries belonging to the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) now have a helpful application (app) at their disposal. The app, called Al Munasiq (The Harmonizer), enables them to look up a tariff...

Based on machine learning, which is the development of algorithms that learn from experience, the app compares the photo/picture received with those in its library. The Google Cloud Vision API was used to integrate vision detection features within the application, including image labelling. The obje...

In 2020, the European Commission signed Advance Purchase Agreements (APAs) with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers on behalf of the European Union (EU) Member States to ensure affordable and timely access to COVID-19 vaccines for their population. Financial support had been given to vaccine manufacturer...

The export authorization was to be granted by the competent authority of the Member State where the vaccines were manufactured. It had to be produced when the goods were declared for export or, at the latest, at the moment of the release of the goods. In Belgium, the authority competent for granting...

Five years ago, clearing shipments imported through Saudi ports of entry was a lengthy process that could take importers up to 12 days, and 8 days on average. To facilitate reporting and the exchange of data between all parties involved in the clearance of goods, whether private or governmental, 201...

To support the momentum gained so far and further reduce clearance times, in 2023 ZATCA launched the Clearance Within Two Hours Initiative. This Initiative brought together 26 government agencies involved in the clearance process, plus several public and private entities, with the aim of identifying...

Trained dogs are incredible chemical sensors, far better than even the most advanced technological device. But training novice handlers and dogs is a highly technical and challenging task. Polish Customs initially benefited from foreign technical assistance to build its capacity in this domain, but...

During the period from 2015 to 2021 a complete modernization of the Centre’s infrastructure was carried out, and the living and working conditions of the dog handlers and service dogs improved greatly. A new building was constructed with efficient heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems ...

Saudi Customs is the latest Customs administration to implement an authorized economic operator (AEO) programme. In doing so, its objective is to modernize border processing and support the trade facilitation objectives outlined in “Vision 2030,” a national blueprint for the Kingdom of Saudi Ara...

China Customs has rolled out a series of measures to enhance staff integrity at all administrative levels and to promote trader compliance across all sectors. Four of the latest initiatives introduced in this regard are described below, namely the extension of the functions of the Discipline and In...

A basic need of any law enforcement agency is to be able to positively identify controlled substances in seized drug samples, as well the purity of the drug, which will support legal proceedings and, hopefully, result in successful convictions. Research aimed at shedding light on the chemical profil...

Canada is internationally recognized as one of the best places in the world to do business. If it is to maintain its competitive edge, increase productivity and spur innovation, Canada must constantly strive to improve the conditions for doing business. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) plays...

With a view to achieving its maximum potential, Mexico recently launched a historic set of structural reforms aimed primarily at increasing productivity. To support these necessary programmes, actions and investments, the Government outlined a strategy to strengthen public expenditure, including am...

Challenges Significant challenges remain. Chief among these are overcoming resistance to change, combating a paternalistic culture, educating new generations to become responsible taxpayers and, more generally, putting measures into place that prevent people from becoming part of the informal sect...

After a 10-year career in various positions at Benin Customs, I felt the need to go and acquire some skills at the WCO in order to gain a better understanding of the rules and operation of the Organization and to fulfil my dream of working for an international organization, even if only for a few mo...

A golden opportunity From a strictly professional perspective, I had had a number of responsibilities in my home administration and had held some important positions, but, before leaving, I had to brush up on a good many subjects in order to upgrade my skills, bearing in mind the vast subject area...

The Botswana Unified Revenue Service recently implemented a new, modern IT system to manage their foreign trade operations. The migration from the old to the new system had to be smooth to ensure business continuity. This article presents the rationale behind the migration, looks at the challenges ...

Rationale for migrating to a new system Several factors influenced the decision to move to a new system. Botswana’s rankings in the World Bank’s flagship report, Doing Business 2011, prompted measures that were aimed at further developing a conducive environment for undertaking business. The c...

Lack of transparency on cross-border procedures has been identified as one of the first “choke points” in global supply chains. To provide economic operators with easy access to Customs tariffs as well as a clear view of measures to be taken when importing or exporting goods, many countries hav...

The latest global multilateral trade agreement, the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), stipulates in its Article 1 (“Publication and availability of information”) that each WTO Member must promptly publish trade-related and Customs-related information in a...

Africa has a long history of initiatives aiming at supporting regional economic cooperation. Let me give a few examples. The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) dates back to the 1889 Customs Union Convention between the British Colony of the Cape of Good Hope and the Orange Free State Boer Republ...

This long introduction is aimed at demonstrating that the AfCFTA is the latest of many regional integration initiatives that go back to the years prior to the colonization of Africa, of integration efforts by the colonial powers, and of initiatives by independent African States under the auspices of...

Schedules of Tariff Concessions The term “Schedules of Tariff Concessions” is defined in Article 1 of the Protocol as “a list of negotiated specific tariff concessions and commitments by each State Party” which “sets out, transparently, the terms, conditions and qualifications under whic...

Customs authorities often boast about working closely and in partnership with the private sector – but what does that really mean? In too many cases, working with the private sector turns out to be little more than a tick-box exercise, perhaps based on a couple of unproductive meetings a year. In...

A neutral player Procomex started out as an informal alliance of business associations, with 54 members in 2004. But it was a virtual organization without a proper, functional structure. Regina Terezin, Customs broker with Cualidad Assessoria e Despachos Aduaneiros, a Member of Procomex, said: “...

In late 2019, French Customs set up a programme called “Valorisation des Données” (“Data Exploitation”), placing data at the heart of its various lines of work. Its intention in embarking on this project was to seek out new tools to transform the way in which its officers carry out their jo...

Apps Below is a brief overview of the apps that have been developed. “Minoration de valeur” (“Undervaluation”) app Developed for the national risk analysis and targeting service, this app helps to detect instances of undervaluation by flagging import flows with abnormal values. Feedback co...

Five years ago, when the United States started to see a rapid rise in opioid overdose deaths, U.S. Customs and Border Protection was encountering large quantities of an unknown substance arriving in international mail and express courier shipments at the U.S. ports of entry. CBP officers suspected ...

Pagano and the other CBP officers at the international mail facility had tools to test the unknown substances for an initial or presumptive analysis, but the technology was limited. If a substance had never been identified before, the tools weren’t able to match it with drugs that were part of the...

Labs at high-risk locations By 2019, CBP’s Laboratories and Scientific Services fully embraced the concept of having scientists on-site at forward operating labs and began establishing more labs at high-threat locations. Many were along the Southwest border, but also in locations such as Chicago...

Customs administrations in the Western Balkans have established a platform to automatically exchange Customs data. Called “SEED”, the system has proven efficient in identifying irregularities, offences and smuggling activities, as well as in accelerating the clearance of goods. With the suppor...

Modules The SEED application consists of several modules (see Figure 2) which extract data from the Parties’ CDPS. Data records are displayed in one window and can be searched, sorted by column, grouped, and exported in various formats. The main modules are presented below. (Administration, Stat...

The WCO defines cross-border electronic commerce (E-Commerce) as “all transactions which are effected digitally through a computer network (e.g. the internet) and result in physical goods flows subject to Customs formalities”.[1] Like many other Customs administrations, when talking about cros...

Since 2017, the express courier operators have been forwarding – both electronically and in paper format – the lists of the parcels for delivery in Burkina Faso before their arrival or departure, and they are responsible for completing the Customs formalities on behalf of their customers. Data h...

As pointed out in the summary table (Table I) of shipments managed by BF Post and DHL both on entry to and departure from the territory, over the 2017-2023 period, BF Post and its subsidiary CHRONOPOST[1] transported fewer parcels (192,764) than DHL (205,187), the former transporting 48% of all p...

At the end of June 2016, a group of WCO experts went to Tunisia as part of a research programme on barriers to trade facilitation with a particular focus on potential obstacles linked to the implementation of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). The WCO-led ...

Partner States of the East African Community (EAC) have developed a Regional Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programme with the support of the WCO and in partnership with the EAC Secretariat. Under this scheme, regional AEOs will be mutually recognized in all Partner States and receive uniform b...

As far back as Colleen Piccone can remember, the World Trade Center was always a part of her life. Growing up on Staten Island in the early 1970s, she watched from across the New York Harbour as the Twin Towers were being built. After graduating from Brooklyn Law School, she started working at 6 Wor...

In an effort to improve the United States Virgin Islands’ (USVI) paper-based entry process for all imported commercial products and expedite the importation process, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on 2 February 2016 that they would continue to assess a viable way to incorporate t...

Just a few years ago, the Dubai government set a very aggressive vision to compete with the major cities of the world, and to stand out as the leading trade hub in the Middle East. This left Dubai Customs with no choice but to evolve and transform. The characteristics of the environment when this tr...

The Brazilian government has recently centralized its export procedures and developed a new online platform to process export operations in order to make them more efficient and, ultimately, boost the economy. The new “unified export system” is the first application developed as part of Brazil�...

Once this step had been completed, only then could the exporter actually submit an export declaration together with any other necessary documents to the RFB to initiate the Customs clearance. Among the documents to be presented were the commercial invoice (containing information about the actual bus...

Several European Union (EU) Member States recently participated in a simulation exercise aimed at analysing practices related to the implementation of the EU Dual-Use Export Control Regulation and identifying related challenges. The simulation gathered both Customs and licensing officers – all ex...

Outcomes and recommendations The purpose of SimEX 2015 was not to teach that a particular way of implementing export control would be better than another. All participants in the preparation/master team and in the playing teams were experienced export control experts. The aim was to collectively r...

Studies have shown that the air mode has become a sought-after transport avenue for criminals wishing to move illicit wildlife products from one country to another. Not only is air transport fast and convenient, it also allows large consignments to be broken up into smaller ones, thereby reducing th...

Questionnaire In order to carry out the assessments, experts developed a model questionnaire that was tested during two assessments which took place in 2016. The model drew on existing tools  dealing with similar issues, which had already been used by the WCO, IATA and the International Consortiu...

Finnish Customs has developed an online Customs duty calculator, enabling consumers buying goods online to easily determine the amount of Customs duty and value added tax (VAT) that they more than likely have to pay to clear their goods. Users must first select the types of goods they are ordering, ...

The amount indicated by the Customs duty calculator is only referential and not all categories of goods are listed by the tool. However, it goes a long way to informing users of what buying goods online involves. This project is an example of innovative and agile development work. The development st...

Export controls are inherently challenging to implement, and no country has a perfect or fool-proof system. In this article, the Customs Department of Lithuania shares information about the specific challenges that the country is facing with dual-use goods, and the latest actions that have been tak...

The EU regulation (No. 428/2009) requires dual-use items to be subject to effective control when they are exported from or transit through the Union, or are delivered to a third country as a result of brokering services provided by a broker resident or established in the Union. Each entry on the lis...

The Mexican Tax Administration Service (Servicio de Administración Tributaria, or SAT) has acknowledged the value of its human capital, and has been putting great effort into motivating its staff and making sure that they are proud to belong to the institution. In this article, they place a spotli...

Throughout the year, we conceive, on average, 25 strategies aimed at influencing the behaviour and work ethic of more than 33,000 SAT employees, located in over 180 offices/representations across the country, including 55 tax payer “attention offices” and 49 Customs offices. We have also establi...

Talking about competitiveness, effectiveness, quality control, risk management, and compliance is meaningless if we do not talk as well about access to technology and data analysis tools, including the need for trained personnel who are able to develop and manage these very tools. At the General Dir...

Purpose Every organization needs a purpose, a well-defined north, a shared vision capable of igniting the spark and keeping the organization moving. The five general objectives of the DGA Strategic Plan state that Customs must: Facilitate foreign trade. Collect and manage revenue efficiently. Str...

Several government and private stakeholders are involved in the clearance of imported food products. To ensure a smooth process, close coordination and sharing of information backed by robust information technology (IT) processes are needed. With this in mind, India’s food safety agency has mappe...

Mapping As part of India’s efforts to facilitate cross-border trade, the FSSAI has mapped ITC HS Codes relating to food products with the corresponding FCS and related Food Safety and Standards Regulations. Although a single ITC HS Code may cover more than one kind of food product, it is now eas...

The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) poses a risk not only to biodiversity and ecosystems, but also to public health, good governance, economies and security worldwide. Given that the point of sourcing and the end-market are often on opposite sides of the world, criminals exploit existing international ...

Criminal networks operating in West and Central Africa’s export hubs extend across a swathe of the region’s tropical rainforests and savannahs, presenting sustained threats to the last strongholds of forest and savannah elephants and pangolin species (white- and black-bellied and giant ground pa...

Role of corruption It is universally understood that corruption “oils” organized crime, and IWT is no exception.[6] Nigeria is regarded as a “safe” country for the trade and shipment of illegal goods by wildlife traffickers, specifically because bribes can easily be paid – and accepted. Co...

In August 2020, Dubai Customs started deploying a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), also called an underwater drone, to boost its marine inspection capabilities. The drone has already proved useful in tackling attempts by traffickers and criminals to bring contraband and prohibited goods into the Uni...

Dubai Customs does not have its own diving team and, in the past, the Customs rummage team would normally search the cabins and the decks of a boat but not underneath the boat. It relies on the services of Dubai Police to do so. Now, the team can use the drone to check any part of a boat as far as 5...

On 1 January 2022, the National Customs Agency of Mexico (ANAM) officially came into existence, becoming an independent body under the Ministry of Finance. Customs-related functions were previously handled by the General Administration for Customs which was one of the units of the Tax Administratio...

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) noted that such autonomy will additionally enable Customs to acquire the financial resources needed to better manage trade flows in the current environment. Furthermore, this autonomy offers an opportunity to rethink Customs management and eliminates externa...

The Southern Common Market (known as MERCOSUR) is a regional integration process initially established by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and subsequently joined by Venezuela (currently suspended) and Bolivia (whose accession procedure is still underway). MERCOSUR makes its decisions throug...

The content and viability of the data model were evaluated by CCM Technical Committee No. 2 (Customs issues). This interdisciplinary work involved multiple CCM committees and subcommittees. In March 2012, during workshop on the WCO Data Model organized by the WCO Secretariat and Argentina Customs, t...

Since 2009, within the framework of the Integrated Plan to support Cuba’s Nuclear Physical Security, the General Customs of the Republic of Cuba (GCR) has been developing a nuclear physical security detection architecture at the border, in conjunction with national agencies and multilateral organi...

Standard Operating Procedures Given the risks involved in controlling nuclear and radiological materials, the response to a radiation alarm is strictly regulated; Standard Operating Procedures have been developed by the Technical committee of standards CTN 119 Radiological Protection which brings ...

Over the last five years, the global economy has been changing. Consumers are buying more goods online, e-commerce is flourishing, and supply chains are moving at a breakneck speed. At the same time, the number of trade agreements is growing, and countries are increasingly more focused on regulation...

Six hundred Customs brokerage companies are registered in Tanzania. Given the size and population of the country, this relatively high number of Customs brokers is due to the fact that Tanzania has three maritime ports, namely Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Mtwara, which are also used by importers and exp...

In a modern globalized world, Customs services require efficient and convenient tools to capture seizure data, data which will enable to strengthen its risk management capacities. The Georgia Revenue Service (GRS), which gathers the Tax and Customs Administration and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary B...

Countering the illegal trade in waste in electrical and electronic equipment, also known as e-waste or by the acronym WEEE, is a challenging, and actual topic for governments, industries, and academics alike. Human health and safety issues, environmental protection concerns, and the economic aspect...

Numbers are a universal language. They reflect an intelligible and neutral understanding about what is happening on the ground. Measuring should threfore be a random activity in the daily life of any Customs service searching to improve its procedures as part of its efforts to enhance its economic ...

After routinely targeting a car import for inspection, a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) international trade specialist noticed an unusual cat-and-mouse move: The importer did not process the targeted vehicle for United States (US) entry and instead shipped the car, a Land Rover Defender, rig...

Dubai Customs launched a smart mobile app enabling passengers arriving in Dubai to securely submit Customs declarations electronically, thus bypassing the current traditional paper forms. The online application, called iDeclare, simplifies the Customs clearance process for passengers by enabling sel...

There can be no improvement in Customs performance without an upgrade of the information system. Given that the system has to be adapted to Customs, a profession that is constantly evolving in the wake of the amendments to the legislative arsenal underpinning foreign trade, this improvement must be ...

Process approach The “computerization process” initiated in the 1990s was rolled out without any consideration for one key approach: the process approach. Emerging in the late 1980s, this approach involves analysis or modelling, as well as a methodical description of an organization or activity ...

PROFILE, a project funded under the European Union’s (EU) Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, aims to develop and test modern data analytics tools with a view to improving Customs risk management techniques. Ultimately, the project will facilitate and accelerate the uptake by Customs a...

Project consortium The project brings together 14 partners from eight countries across Europe: five Customs administrations, leading technology providers, and universities as well as research institutes. The project is coordinated by the Cross-border Research Association (CBRA), a Swiss institute fo...

A new tool has been developed in Russia to help create an enabling trade environment: the “Charter on Fair Participation in Foreign Economic Activity.” The Charter is the result of a series of complex consultations between government and business representatives on how the latter can back up gov...

To monitor the implementation of the Customs Development Programme, 41 key performance indicators (KPIs) were identified. Those referring to the section “10 Steps to Meet Business” include the sharing of online submissions of declarations, and the sharing of automatically released electr...

When enforcement authorities or players in the art market suspect that cultural goods have been acquired illegally, they need experts to determine the quality, origin and value of the objects. In the United Kingdom, the British Museum is the expert body they turn to in such cases. In this article, ...

Protocol Our expert advice is sought in confidence. If the items prove to be ancient and in breach of antiquities laws, national legislation and/or declaration, we notify the relevant national museum in the country where we believe these objects to have originated, request permission to proceed wi...

Uganda Customs adopted the National Customs Enforcement Network (nCEN) back in 2015. It took time to enter information in the application and to convince enforcement officers of its benefits. But today, with 1,200 cases validated in the database, the appreciation of the system has greatly improved, ...

The nCEN consists of three independent databases. The principal database of national seizures and offences comprises data required for analysis, as well as means of conveyance, routes, and the possibility to view photos depicting exceptional concealment methods. Two supplementary databases contain i...

The Lithuanian Customs Practitioners Association (LCPA) is a very dynamic organization which publishes a journal called the Customs Compliance & Risk Management Journal for Practitioners. To stimulate the exchange of ideas between Journal contributors, the Association decided to create a writer...

Enabling traders to learn from their mistakes Dinesh Unadkat, Director of a consultancy firm called J. D. Consultants Ltd, explained that in the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) recognizes that some importers and exporters try to be compliant but do not necessarily always...

Ensuring that the tariff classification of a good is correct is of paramount importance in several ways for any Customs administration. In particular, this provides good visibility of foreign trade through the collection of reliable statistics on volumes of trade in products, whether imported or exp...

In January 2020, before the procedure was brought into effect, Customs was given assistance by two experts from the WCO Secretariat, seconded to it as part of the European Union-funded programme called “Harmonizing the classification of goods based on WCO standards to enhance African Trade”, com...

Knowing that strengthening human capital is one of the key factors that determine performance, Moroccan Customs made this one of the five objectives of its 2017-2021 Strategic Plan. In September 2019, as part of this Plan, a Customs Training Institute came into being. In this article, the Administr...

Training is also offered for what are known as support positions within the Administration, such as human resource management and budget management. In addition to this, there is specific training known as “succession training”, which is intended for a pool of Customs officials selected for thei...

The Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) is constantly evolving. Its objective is to simplify and digitize all processes and to increase the organization’s flexibility. DaziT is the name given to the programme that brings together the various activities undertaken to achieve that...

Automatic activation Automatic activation is a key component of the new end-to-end digitized Customs process which is gradually being introduced as part of the DaziT programme. At this juncture, two applications, Periodic and Activ, have been developed to manage periodic declarations (facilities g...

Mobility and flexibility The transformation is not limited to digitization; that is just the tip of the iceberg. As an organization, the FOCBS will be undergoing a radical transformation to become more agile and more flexible. The reorganization is focused on a single professional profile replacin...

This article gives a snapshot of the evolution of risk management within Armenia Customs. It looks in particular into the analytical tools developed to strengthen anti-counterfeiting enforcement. The implementation of a risk management tool to manage the movement of goods in Armenia dates back to ...

Flexibility and continuous improvements The tool built is flexible and undergoes continuous development and expansion. Like other automated systems, it collects, organizes and categorizes data from various IT systems on the basis of rules developed using machine learning methods. Besides targeting...

At the Georgian Cyber Security and IT Innovation Conference held in 2019, the IPR module developed by the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia won the prize for “Best Online Information Resource”. During the event, the State Revenue Committee was also awarded “The Best IT Managem...

The date of 10 December 2020 marked the history of the Moroccan Customs Service. On that date, Morocco’s Governing Council approved the draft Decree governing Customs staff regulations. This article reviews the significant provisions of the Decree and the important changes it introduces.   ...

This had negative consequences in terms of managing the Customs body, particularly in relation to inappropriate recruitment criteria, career structure and conduct. To be recruited as surveillance officers, for example, within a unit, applicants had to be between 18 and 45 years of age, while physic...

In a world where international trade is the lifeblood of economies, ensuring the smooth flow of goods across borders while maintaining rigorous controls is a challenging balancing act. Dubai, one of the world’s busiest trade hubs, is meeting this challenge head-on by investing in advance tech...

Cross Border E-commerce platform The Government, guided by its strategic vision to establish Dubai as a global e-commerce hub and reduce the cost associated with e-commerce operations, is committed to achieving a noteworthy 20% reduction in the cost related to e-commerce operations. These encompas...

How Operation JUBILARIAN II came about In 2017, the Australian Border Force (ABF) conducted a project that identified a group of overseas jewellery merchants whose business model involved suspected repeated exploitation of the ATA[1] carnet. The ATA carnet is an international Customs document that...

Establishing Operation JUBILARIAN II In 2022, the ABF proposed the conducting of another Operation on the misuse of ATA carnets to the WCO. This proposal was warmly welcomed, and endorsed at the 43rd Enforcement Committee in March 2023. 46 WCO Members participated in JUBILARIAN II from July to Oct...

Some years ago, the WCO took the initiative to bring together key stakeholders to discuss the creation of an electronic ATA Carnet (eATA) solution. ICC presented its eATA concept to the WCO back in 2016 and, with the support of the Organization, implemented an eATA pilot project in four countries. ...

What is the ATA Carnet System? In each one of the countries or territories having implemented the ATA Carnet procedure, the Customs authority appoints a National Guaranteeing Association (NGA) which guarantees payment of import duties and taxes in cooperation with foreign NGAs around the world. Un...

How Customs can prepare As already explained, the ATA Carnet System provides a dedicated turnkey application – ATA Carnet Customs (ACC) – for Customs to process and manage digital Carnets. The various steps Customs should take to use the application are explained below. Preliminary step: Des...

Guatemala’s Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT) has set forth the objective to comprehensively modernize the work processes of its Customs Intendency in order to simplify and automate the entry and exit of goods on its territory. By 2025, several new Customs clearance models are expected t...

The team working on the air cargo stream identified several issues such as: lack of automation, excessive use of paper, high level of discretionary power, minimal information exchange, inability of the web application to function across different browsers, duplication of data and file processing, d...

Benefits The implementation of the new air cargo clearance model entailed several challenges. System dependencies had to be mapped out and understood, migration process had to be developed, staff and users had to change the way they worked, among other things. The new IT system transformed the wor...

Since deciding to adopt renewable energy solutions in 2014, Jordan Customs has been installing solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in a number of its facilities around the Kingdom. The initiative is part of Jordan Customs’ efforts to realize the Jordanian Government’s objective to reduce nationa...

Introduction The Horn of Africa refers to the easternmost extension of Africa, and for the purposes of this article, includes the region covered by Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Somaliland. This area has been a theatre of struggle between and amongst world powers for more than one cent...

One of the difficulties in reforming African public administrations derives from the absence or weakness of proper instruments to monitor public action. There is a direct link between bad practices, corruption and a lack of results. For Customs, an improvement in governance automatically brings abou...

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing trading hubs, as a result of its accelerated and extensive modernization initiatives in recent years, the quality of its infrastructure, the intellectual power of its workforce, and a genuine drive to achieve its goa...

Following the creation of a Command Centre within the Enforcement Division’s Anti-Smuggling Department in 2012, Serbia Customs has significantly improved its capacity to fight smuggling. This improvement can be attributed to the implementation of a range of tools, including a new web application ...

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) provides integrated border services that support national security and public safety priorities while facilitating the legitimate flow of people and goods. To fulfill this mandate, the Government of Canada has developed a legislative and regulatory framework ...

Earlier this year, the WCO and the Bahamas Customs and Excise Department (BCED) embarked on an exciting partnership to employ a new model for Customs capacity building and technical assistance. For the first time, a national multi-year WCO Mercator Programme Implementation Plan has been combined wit...

Under the Mercator Programme, capacity building is provided on the basis of a comprehensive needs assessment and development plan. Once gaps related to meeting the commitments under the TFA have been identified, multi-year action plans are developed to serve as roadmaps and mechanisms by which progr...

The first Free Zone Park in the Dominican Republic was established in 1969, in the city of La Romana, by the Gulf and Western Corporation, an American firm, which has grown to become the largest private operator in the country. The legal provisions regulating such “free zones” are laid out in Ac...

Dynamic growth By 2017, the free zone sector in the Dominican Republic consisted of 71 parks, bringing together 665 companies. The Free Zone Parks generate 165,724 direct jobs and account for exports amounting to just under 5,695 million US dollars. Industries established in the country’s free z...

The role of Customs has become increasingly complex over the years. On the one hand, international corporations and supply chains actors in general have put pressure on governments to shape a new operating model at the border, based on simplifying procedures and expediting the release of traded good...

Brazil’s approach In 2014, Global Financial Integrity (GFI)[4], undertook a study in Brazil, producing a report entitled “Brazil: Capital Flight, Illicit Flows, and Macroeconomic Crises, 1960-2012.” One of its findings is that mis-invoicing comprises the largest proportion of capital flight ...

The Maldives Customs Service recently installed the Global Travel Assessment System (GTAS), an advance passenger data risk assessment system that enables advance passenger information (API) and passenger name record (PNR) data to be collected and analysed. In this article, the Customs Service expla...

Implementation journey Up until 2017, the Maldives Customs Service did not have a clear action plan for the implementation of an API and PNR transmission and processing system. But in October 2017, a representative of the Customs Service attended a workshop of the WCO Asia Pacific Security Projec...

Embedded in the Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade, which was adopted by the WCO in 2005, is the concept of an Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) that has been widely implemented by Customs administrations around the world. In the South American region, preparations for the...

These figures do not tell us much if not compared with the total number of importers. Let’s do an exercise with Colombia. In this country, 920 companies are recognized as big importers and are already benefitting from a facilitation scheme. Given that most existing and potential AEOs are and would...

How do we discover new fraud? On what basis and on which data do we rely in deciding when to investigate certain commodities or trade flows rather than others? Chance, intuition, experience and intelligence are useful, but can we complement them using a more objective approach to detect new fraud t...

In choosing the most cost-effective option to distribute goods, supply chain managers all over the world have four transport options to choose from: ocean-going vessel, plane, train, or truck. But for European distribution there is also another efficient option available, shortsea shipping[1] (SSS)....

Ferries are also big players in the industry. They transport goods in trailers, which unlike containers, come in various shapes and sizes, and the cargo can be both accompanied and unaccompanied. Shortsea shipping has been quietly growing and developing, and several ports see this trade as a focus. ...

Abu Dhabi is leading the region’s digital transformation drive with a view to moving all of the emirate’s trade online during 2021 Although the maritime transport industry handles 90%[1] of global trade, the sector’s administrative procedures are complex and time-consuming. Out of the USD 9...

Five years on, and after spending so long behind the technology curve, many of the world’s leading maritime players are now embracing a bold new era of digital innovation, and none more so than in the Arabian Peninsula, in the capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi. Back in 2014, its Government tapped Abu...

It is estimated that the world population has surpassed 7.4 billion, generating over 10 billion tonnes of varying types of waste per year. Waste can be traded at international level as long as commercial transactions are in compliance with the rules set by the Basel Convention on the Control of Tran...

Fewer seizures Data show a decline in waste imports following the entry into force of the ban: there were 13.49 million tonnes of solid waste imported into China in 2019, representing a 39.8% decline compared with 2018. Most of this was made up of waste paper (10.36 million tonnes), imports of whi...

In 2021, the Government of Mozambique launched the Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) with a view to bolster the supervision capacity for transit goods and hence promote legal cross-border and regional trade by reducing smuggling, theft and losses of goods across the supply chain. Mozambique, l...

In order to address this challenge, the Government of Mozambique has established a company under a public-private partnership scheme to implement and operate an electronic sealing and cargo tracking system for the next 30 years. The system has been rolled out across the entire country, covering the ...

In December 2020, Uzbekistan acceded to the International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (Revised Kyoto Convention). This article describes the impact of the Convention on the Customs reform process and introduces the work done in recent months towards the ...

In 2015, while drafting the new Customs code, Uzbek Customs had conducted a gap analysis with the help of WCO Secretariat experts to assess the level of compliance of the national legislation and regulatory frameworks with the Convention’s standards. All RKC provisions were compared to the nationa...

Having digitized the entire Customs clearance process by 1998, the Korea Customs Service (KCS) has been a pioneer in the adoption of emerging technologies. Moving forward with these efforts, it now aspires to develop innovative technological equipment. This article explains how it became a governme...

KCS immediately set out to meet these demands. In 2020, it formed an R&D matrix task force, consisting of a cross-functional group of members from the planning and ICT divisions. The work of this task force involved the planning of the budget, amendment of the Customs Act, establishment of an R&...

CustomsLab projects in focus Each CustomsLab project paid special attention to end users’ needs during the planning process and the work involved in deciding on a research topic. To that end, KCS held an R&D idea contest open to participation by its staff and the general public. Each proposa...

Connecting national Customs systems to share data on transit operations is a priority for the Customs administrations of West and Central Africa, as well as for economic operators, international institutions and development partners working in this region. The objective is to secure, simplify and s...

Inception SIGMAT is the result of a long process, which involved many actors. With the financial support of the European Union (EU), the Customs administrations of some of the countries making up the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) started working on the interconnection of their...

Any Customs administration could eventually benefit from SIGMAT. Its implementation will not require development for those using the ASYCUDA World Customs computer system, making the adoption of SIGMAT particularly feasible for them. However, there are some important prerequisites. Interested admini...

Using data analytics, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has developed an application automating the measurement of release and clearance times at the border. The result is an ability to measure time release dynamically and in real time, and to overcome the limitations of the traditional Time Release Study ...

Limitations of traditional TRS Legacy Time Release Studies are static (one time) and based on manual data collection, observation, and qualitative analysis. This lack of automation makes it difficult to repeat this activity, and generally requires the same time and level of effort to accomplish sim...

Launched in 2013, the Gender Equality Organizational Assessment Tool[1] (GEOAT) enables Customs administrations to self-assess their existing policies and procedures on gender equality in order to identify areas where improvement may be needed. While they can conduct the assessment on their own, Cus...

In the coming months the Project will also focus on: Conducting training, leveraging the WCO blended training package “Advancing gender equality and diversity in Customs”. Supporting the drafting of gender equality action plans for the three Customs administrations. Updating the GEOAT, adding n...

The Czech Customs laboratory celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023. Its history goes back to the creation of Czechoslovakia, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918 at the end of World War I. First known as the Chemical and Technical Testing Laboratory, it was established in 1...

Staff Today, CTL employs more than 50 specialists and technicians. Customs laboratories differ from other laboratories in that they have to analyse all types of products, mainly for the purposes of Customs classification, with staff skilled in two disciplines: chemical analysis and Customs regulat...

Bahrain Customs Affairs (BCA) is constantly developing its systems and infrastructure to support and improve Customs operations, thereby helping to build a safe, advanced, investment-friendly business environment in the Kingdom. Bahrain, an active Member of the WCO, regularly examines the standards,...

Challenges Customs warehouses play a role in lowering technical barriers to trade by enabling goods to be temporarily stored without being cleared through Customs; import duties and other taxes are therefore not collected. This means that importers do not need to draw on their cash resources as lo...

The Dominican Republic’s Directorate General of Customs (DGA) is striving to be a more diverse and inclusive workplace. The term “diversity” refers to “any attribute people use to tell themselves that another person is different”,[1] such as colour, race, ethnicity, gender, identity, age, ...

This idea soon materialized into a programme enabling young individuals to spend 11 weeks within a department of the DGA. By the end of May 2024, the programme had delivered 10 rounds of traineeships, benefiting a total of 621 individuals. As a starting point, the DGA’s goal was to design a pro...

Slovakia plays a significant role as a transit country in European trade due to its strategic location in Central Europe. It borders Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine, making it a key transit hub for goods moving across the continent. In 2014, when the European Commission requ...

The NCTS has been in use since 2005 and has been updated several times. The NCTS P4 had been in operation for almost two decades when a decision was taken to replace it as part of a wider initiative to modernize Customs systems arising from the Work Programme on the Union Customs Code (UCC). This up...

A lack of Customs systems interconnectivity coupled with delays and inaccuracies in the paper based exchange of cross-border trade data between Customs administrations continues to negatively hamper trade facilitation and regional integration efforts in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). The...

Over several decades, the 1975 Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods under Cover of TIR Carnets (TIR Convention) has proven to be one of the most successful and efficient instruments for the facilitation of international transport and goods in transit, helping to increase trade,...

To enable a Customs union to operate properly, active cooperation between Customs authorities within the union must be established. This cooperation is not necessarily limited to legal issues touching on “core” Customs domains, e.g. regulating import and export formalities or establishing a comm...

The national security environment is one of uncertainty and complexity, with security threats emerging from different conflicts and threatening different interests. Despite its relatively remote geographic location, the threat to Australia and Australians from terrorists and violent extremists is bo...

A new Customs agency In March 2018, the Chinese government decided to integrate China’s entry-exit inspection and quarantine duties and workforce into China Customs. Since 20 April, the previous entry-exit inspection and quarantine officers in 306 ports nationwide have started to work as Customs...

More accurate targeting The new Customs information system has been built to integrate and analyse “Big Data” – i.e. data aggregated from various sources and in multiple forms. A Big Data Application Centre and a Big Data Platform have thus been established. We have gradually shaped an opera...

Intelligence-based risk management is a term widely used in the Customs sector and everyone agrees that today, it is the way to go to support global trade facilitation efforts and deal with resource constraints. One of the key measures to implement such a policy is to have a systematic and accurate ...

Georgia’s experience Back in 2016, the Georgia Revenue Service (GRS), which brings together under one umbrella the Tax and Customs Administration and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Border Control Agency, decided to implement the nCEN application. Since deploying the system three years ago, Georgia...

In terms of the WCO International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (Revised Kyoto Convention), “free zone” means a part of the territory of a Contracting Party [to the Convention] where any goods introduced are generally regarded, insofar as import duties ...

At present, the national legislative framework governing Georgia’s free industrial zones includes: a law covering free industrial zones; regulations on the “assignment of instructions concerning the guarantee amount and terms for the establishment of free industrial zones and the rules of s...

The Saudi economic and social reform plan, called Saudi Vision 2030, aims at inducing long-term economic growth that is not reliant only upon oil exports. Saudi Arabia is the largest market in the MENA region and a gateway to a region of over 424 million consumers. Leveraging its unique geographic p...

Integrating the Single Window into TradeLens Since 2017, Saudi Customs had been actively engaging in the digitalization of its clearance procedures and its handling of shipments. An electronic national system for the management of cross-border trade operations, called FASAH, has been developed. It...

Hong Kong Customs’ enforcement strategy is multi-pronged. The administration attaches equal importance to developing efficient enforcement tactics, educating the public and engaging with it, maintaining close collaboration with its overseas enforcement counterparts, and fostering Customs-business...

Memoranda of Understanding After some discussions, in March 2015, Hong Kong Customs signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with five major express courier operators, namely DHL Express (Hong Kong) Limited, Federal Express (Hong Kong) Limited, S.F. Express (Hong Kong) Limited, TNT Express Worldwi...

Combating money laundering in all its forms is a top priority for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arm. ICE, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the United States (US), is tasked with a broad law enforcement mission, inc...

Singapore Customs launched a Trade Finance Compliance Service on the country’s Networked Trade Platform to augment trade finance compliance efforts against money laundering and terrorist financing. Banks and financial institutions offer multiple solutions to traders in order to facilitate the pu...

Trade finance and trade-based money laundering As part of their money laundering related monitoring and reporting obligations, banks and other financial institutions have to assess whether these trade transactions are legitimate or possibly being used to launder money or move illicit funds. The pr...

Cooperation between Customs agencies is crucial in order to address some of the collective risks and challenges faced at the border. The Australian Border Force regularly collaborates with foreign Customs and enforcement authorities in various ways, for example by setting up joint initiatives or or...

As a result of Mr. Jeong’s assignment to Australia, the ABF and the KCS now have a greater understanding of each other’s plans in applying emerging technologies to Customs and border processes that will open new avenues for collaboration. By harnessing technology and enabling data sharing, it wi...

During the past four years, the Oman Directorate General of Customs has been working on the Bayan system, the IT solution used by border regulatory agencies to process all trade procedures and declarations, and issue import permits and licenses. While deploying the system, the administration also si...

Training One of the challenges in implementing the Bayan System was to provide all parties connected with the necessary training on using the system. For example, some needed to understand how to issue import or export permits, while others needed to set up the risk management system. Each governm...

The two main agencies managing Belarus’ border are the State Customs Committee and the State Border Committee, the latter being responsible for implementing the rules that govern external border checks on people, entry requirements and duration of short stays. © Belarus State Customs Committee To...

The functions include: controlling the movement of people and vehicles over national borders, inspecting identification documents and visas, performing a visual assessment of the health condition of individuals as part of the implementation of sanitary and quarantine control; monitoring the complia...

China Customs plays a key role in the administration of rules of origin, from their formulation to their implementation. Insiders who follow trade and Customs reforms in China may have noticed the emergence, in recent years, of new expressions and terms in this domain, such as “self-service print...

Exporters can submit their certificate application in paper copy or electronically, either by connecting to the International Trade Single Window System or by visiting the “Internet + Customs” website. Once the application has been examined and approved, China Customs notifies the exporter. In a...

Vanuatu is one of the few countries in the world to have almost evaded the COVID-19 pandemic. This is mainly due to the implementation of stringent border control measures in the archipelago. This article examines how the Vanuatu Department of Customs and Inland Revenue (DCIR) adapted its procedure...

Cargo It was essential to ensure minimum physical interaction during cargo offloading and processing. At the airport, terminal workers were provided with full personal protective equipment (PPE) and were asked to have no physical interaction with the aircraft crew. The goods after unloading were l...

The need to dispose of or destroy goods that infringe intellectual property (IP) rights in an appropriate, environmentally safe manner, in line with the applicable environmental and public health legislation, has been highlighted at various WCO meetings as well as in this magazine. For many years, a...

In 2021, Dubai Customs made around 390 seizures totalling 1,764,710 counterfeit items – a big jump from the 1,906 counterfeit items seized in 2020. The fake products ranged from computers to athletic shoes, timepieces, mobile phone accessories, headphones, garments, bags and cosmetics. All of the ...

Fresh impetus The new procedure is set to give fresh impetus to the cooperation between right holders and Dubai Customs. The latter regularly organize training events in cooperation with the right holders of major brands, to enhance the capacity of inspectors to detect counterfeits and distinguish...

Cigarette factories need various raw materials, intermediate goods, and manufacturing equipment to operate. Controlling trade in such inputs should therefore be part of Customs’ strategy in the fight against illicit cigarettes trade. This article presents the various types of inputs of cigarette ...

Some key inputs may be substituted with alternative materials, while others may be used to manufacture products other than cigarettes. They also differ in terms of number of suppliers which produce them, and ease with which they can be identified referring to their trade names and WCO Harmonized Sys...

The Global Express Association (GEA) collects key performance indicators on the efficiency of Customs processes in currently 120 countries and territories. They are structured in a fully searchable online database that is publicly available on the association’s website. The Global Express Associ...

All the investments that express delivery carriers constantly make to improve their network give them firm administrative and physical control over the parcels. Shipments tend to stay in an express carrier’s network throughout their journey. Track-and-trace capability allows carriers and their cli...

Firstly, GEA’s objective is not to rank countries or point fingers at anyone. Rather, it wants to offer a contribution to the discussion on improving trade facilitation and on the level of implementation of the most important international treaties on this matter. Secondly, the database reflects t...

Body-worn cameras are small cameras which can be clipped onto clothes or worn as a headset and turned on to record video and audio. In some countries, enforcement agencies are using the devices to monitor officers on patrol or on other assignments that bring them into contact with individuals. This...

Research The Department conducted extensive research and practical experiments to determine the required specifications to be met by the cameras. The team in charge of the project first had to document the situations that the officers of the Anti-Smuggling Directorate and the Customs Escort Director...

High rise buildings with beautiful lighting, fascinating road layouts and curves cutting deftly and sometimes complicatedly across each other, signalled my arrival in Japan. Almost every wall and sign post from the airport to the city was dotted with an intriguing mix of Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji...

In cooperation with the WCO, the Gambia Revenue Authority has embarked on a journey to modernize its human resource management capacity, which will enable it to become one of the country’s best employers, as well as a better service delivery institution. Created in 2004 through a merger of the C...

Re-code, an independent Chinese research institute focusing on issues related to Customs and trade, shares its thoughts in this article on the OECD method to assess trade facilitation policies, explains why it decided to evaluate the performance of China using the indicators constructed by the OECD...

China’s trade facilitation policies The OECD conducted assessments on China’s trade facilitation policies in 2012, 2015 and 2017. The results are shown in table 1. Experts agreed that, in general, the above evaluation results fairly reflected the level of trade facilitation in China. Howev...

As Virtual Reality (VR) solutions are creating new ways to learn and become more embedded in the private and public sectors, Dubai Customs recently deployed a one-of-a-kind VR training programme to train their inspectors for fieldwork. The training is designed to improve inspectors’ efficiency in ...

Shanghai Customs College (SCC) was founded in 1953 to provide training in Customs technique and management to the staff of the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China. In March 2007, with the approval of the Ministry of Education, the SCC became an institution of hi...

Meeting international standards Many universities around the world have now launched educational programmes that focus specifically on Customs issues and how they link to the international trade landscape. To ensure that these programmes provide the knowledge and skills that the WCO deems necessar...

By deepening their collaboration, the Customs services of Uganda and Kenya have managed to optimize processes, facilitate trade operations, and strengthen enforcement capacities. Their story is a testimony to the fact that no amount of investment or innovation can solve problems without consensus o...

The Framework lists exchange of information, mutual recognition of controls, mutual recognition of authorized economic operators (AEOs), and mutual administrative assistance as some of the avenues of collaboration, effective measures that have been proven to go a long way in dealing with some of the...

The WCO has long emphasized that the Time Release Study (TRS) is a useful tool with which a country can assess the performance of its Customs administration, border regulatory agencies, port authorities, trade operators and various service providers, in terms of the clearance process. In this artic...

Challenges The Administration was faced with numerous challenges during the preparation and implementation phases of the TRS: High-level support had to be secured, as conducting a TRS requires resources, as well as the capacity to instruct other agencies and participants. There was a lack of pers...

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) consists of five Member States – Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa – with a combined population of over 63 million people and a combined GDP in excess of 300 billion US dollars. It is the oldest functioning Customs Union in the world,...

In order to promote uniform classification of goods within the Customs Union and contribute to the overall management of the CET, the SACU Secretariat has in recent years been working with the WCO Secretariat as part of a specific capacity building programme funded by the European Union (EU): the �...

In 2015, the Kingdom of Morocco adopted a National Anti‑Corruption Strategy, the implementation of which is overseen by a steering committee chaired by the Prime Minister. This article sets out the approach adopted by Moroccan Customs in this area, an approach fully in line with this Strategy and...

For each operational process, risk indicators and sensitive stages have been identified. Risks associated with the import process include: tardiness in the processing of a Customs declaration; the physical inspection of the goods; the re-selection of declarations for a full physical inspection; the...

With approximately 64,000 employees, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest law enforcement organization in the United States and one of the largest in the world. Eighty per cent of the workforce are geographically dispersed agents and officers who face unique pressures, stressors,...

Outside of incorporating mental well-being into mandatory training, CBP also regularly communicates the different work-life services and benefits available to the workforce. CBP has a robust and unique menu of services provided to employees that sets them apart from similar organizations within the ...

Under the leadership of President Suharto, Indonesia built one of the world’s largest bureaucracies. It suffered from a range of problems including rampant corruption, inefficiency and poor service delivery. Following democratization in 1998, the country’s political leaders experimented with var...

Gratification, by contrast, is the receipt by civil servants or state administrators, by virtue of their position, of a gift in the broadest sense, in a manner which is incompatible with their obligations and duties. This includes the provision of money, goods, rebates (discounts), commissions, inte...

Selecting cargo for inspections and examinations using basic methods has limitations, so, to enhance their enforcement capability, Customs administrations need a paradigm shift in the way they deal with targeting. They need to leverage data science, an interdisciplinary academic field that uses sta...

The architecture’s robustness is underpinned by its ability to combine multiple advanced data science components with human intelligence. It enables Indian Customs to integrate multiple data sources, generate meaningful insights and utilize targets derived from both data science and human expertis...

In Indonesia, the number of individuals purchasing goods online continues to rise annually, and it is estimated that 73% of the population made at least one transaction through a computer network in 2023. Bank of Indonesia has reported that, in 2022, e-commerce transactions reached USD 30.5 billion ...

Under the DDP scheme, marketplaces must include and collect import duties and/or taxes in the price of goods. They must also connect their IT systems to Indonesia Customs Excise Information System and Automation (CEISA) to enable automatic exchange of data. Two categories of data are exchanged: that...

This article explores three approaches that could facilitate a more accurate, practical and tenable measurement of the size and value of cross-border e-commerce, enabling governments to obtain a clearer picture of its actual contribution to the economy. Cross-border e-commerce has emerged as one o...

Survey-based approaches Most of the methods developed by international organizations so far are based on surveys. In 2023 the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published a document entitled Measuring the value of e-Commerce. This defines e-commerce as referring “to tran...

The inherent disadvantage of being an archipelagic country is the high cost of logistics. As a country with 17,000 or so islands, and with industrial activities heavily centralized in certain regions, Indonesia was for a long time no exception, with a lower ranking in the World Bank Logistics Perfor...

To take the project forward, a national team consisting of various governmental institutions involved in regulating and managing logistics operations was established. Although it is not a formal institution, the team has a formal project management structure: A steering committee provides guidance ...

Achievements As at October 2024, activities planned under the NLE project have been implemented gradually in 46 seaports and six airports covering 97% of goods traffic through sea cargo and 98% of goods traffic through air cargo respectively. Data from Indonesia’s National Development Planning A...

On 26 October 2017, French Customs handed over eight archaeological finds to the Egyptian authorities during the official visit to France by Egypt’s President, H.E. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. These antiquities (two cat statuettes, one sculpted stone head and five painted wood tablets), which are more t...

An initiative by Dubai Customs facilitating the speedy and hassle-free movement of transferred and transhipped goods augurs well for the supply chain and logistics industry in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dubai has established itself as one of the world’s major multimodal hubs over ...

Imagine being less than two feet tall and having to navigate the luggage carousel at one of the busiest airports in America. This could be a daunting and intimidating task, but every day a non-intimidating canine battles through the large crowds sniffing backpacks and luggage looking for food. Frodo...

When people think of law enforcement canines, beagles are probably one of the last breeds someone would envision. Anderson believes the programme to start using beagles began in the 80s. “We wanted to create public awareness of the agricultural programme. Beagles are cute and cuddly and not intimi...

The use of sophisticated concealment methods by traffickers requires the use of proper inspection equipment by Customs administrations. As with all modes of transport, vessels present their own challenges when it comes to search operations. Rummaging vessels is extremely time consuming and expensive...

Palestine Customs aims at creating an environment supportive of the national economy by preserving the security and safety of the community and combating smuggling, tax evasion, and commercial fraud in all its forms. All laudable activities for a territory that faces enormous daily challenges on man...

The nCEN was installed at the beginning of 2018. In February of the same year, two Palestinian Customs officers working respectively in IT and in risk management participated in a workshop organized by the WCO, giving them the opportunity to learn: how to administer the tool; how to manage the user...

Customs analysts use the nCEN data to identify risk criteria and set up the data analytics functionality such as automated searches on new data, and matching rules that allow users to identify connections between data elements in the application. The fact that the latest version of CENcomm, the WCO�...

Like many of its counterparts, the Guatemalan Customs Administration has faced many challenges in recent months due to COVID-19. One of these is the validation of applicants for the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) Programme, and the supervision of existing AEOs, while minimizing travel and physic...

Lessons learned The Guatemalan Customs AEO Unit carried out several validation exercises of applicants for the AEO Programme during the pandemic, combining a physical and virtual validation method. In 2020, 23 companies were certified as AEOs using this methodology. It was necessary as part of thi...

In 2017, we described in the pages of this magazine how the new management team of the Superintendence of Tax Administration (SAT) undertook major reforms following the “La Línea” case. La Linea was a fraud scheme in which importers paid bribes to avoid Customs duty or to receive greatly reduce...

Since its formation in September 2016, the Committee has proved to be an efficient cooperation mechanism providing suggestions for procedures and processes to be developed or enhanced to make legitimate transactions faster and more transparent, efficient and secure. It monitors, for example, the imp...

21 February 1923 saw the establishment of the Office of the Revenue Commissioners in Ireland, shortly after the fledgling new State gained its independence in December 1922. Almost one hundred years on, the Office, which answers to the Minister for Finance, aims to serve the community by fairly and...

The successful development of a major Customs free zone, the Shannon Free Zone (SFZ), on the west coast of Ireland, in an area where the attraction of industry was crucial to the economy, was in part facilitated by the post-hoc audit of company records as opposed to the continuous physical checks us...

A host of Finns imported goods from outside the European Union (EU) in 2022 for their private use. Of these individuals, 250,000 used the Customs Duty Calculator[1] when planning the cost of importing goods. Planning with the Duty Calculator is an effective way of understanding the costs arising fro...

At the time, Finnish Customs was implementing a strategy that included a component for pilot projects. The budget for pilot projects made it possible to start cooperation with VTT, one of Europe’s leading research institutions. VTT already had experience in the area of carbon footprints and had ma...

Crafting a performance measurement system Measuring performance shows a commitment to transparency, accountability, and effective governance. For a nation embarking on this path, the approach of the CBSA may offer guidance. A wise move would be to establish a small oversight team, akin to the five...

Embarking on programme oversight Oversight refers to the actions taken to review and monitor policies, plans, programmes, and projects, to ensure that they are achieving expected results, represent good value for money, and are in compliance with applicable policies, laws, regulations, and ethical...

Using the WCO Performance measurement mechanism The WCO PMM and CBSA performance measurement model are similar. This is no coincidence, given the collaborative approach adopted by the Customs administrations who participated in the WCO Working Group on Performance Measurement. For a Customs admin...

Over the past two years, the Mongolian Customs General Administration (MCGA) has embarked on an ambitious journey to reform its post-clearance audit (PCA) process with the support of the WCO. This article explains how the reform has taken shape and what has been achieved so far. Conducting post-cl...

In 1996, the Mongolian Customs General Administration (MCGA) established a PCA department, making PCA an essential part of its Customs declaration control process. As foreign trade turnover increased significantly over the decades that followed, the Administration reformulated its strategic goals fo...

Examining procedures and regulations Based on the work plan, the MCGA created a working group to draft proposals for amendments to the Mongolian Customs Law. Together with all Customs staff involved in the legal reform, the WCO experts examined procedures related to the execution of an audit thro...

The West and Central Africa (WCA) region is one of the six regions of the WCO. It is made up of 23 countries, including 14 that are French-speaking, five that are English-speaking, 3 that are Portuguese-speaking, and one that is bilingual (English and French). Since 2016, this region has been run by...

Are there ways to improve compliance, safety, security, operational efficiency and information quality in international trade? Reduce the administrative burden for business and government? Foster the uniform application of Customs legislation? Encourage mutual understanding between the public and p...

The State of Israel has a rich history, with more than 30,000 known antiquity sites across the country. Most of these sites are out in the open, unguarded, and easily reached by the public. Neighbouring countries, such as Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey, are in the same situation, but...

Enhancing protection The efforts of the Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit (ATPU) of the IAA to overcome this phenomenon consist of several activities that include: regular monitoring of archaeological sites by ATPU inspectors, in order to catch looters in the field and ensure that they are effect...

Dubai, the second largest emirate of the UAE, stands among the fastest growing e-commerce markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), bearing the fruits of adopting incentivizing policies and “smart government” initiatives. Recently, the Government of Dubai rolled out the emirate’s e-c...

E-commerce challenges With a 25% yearly growth rate, the MENA region is the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market. Dubai consumers and businesses are major contributors to this growth, which is expected to continue in the near future, with Expo 2020 being a key driver. The increased number o...

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is becoming the world’s largest existing free trade agreement in terms of economic size. Aimed at further integrating the economies of Southeast and Northeast Asia, the RCEP sets high requirements on Customs in terms of procedures, processes ...

Highlights of the RECP For the first time, China and Japan have agreed on tariff concessions There is no FTA between China and Japan, and the two countries do not belong to the same free trade bloc. This is therefore the first time that the two countries have agreed on common provisions for tra...

Parties should use the TRS to its full potential Conducting a Time Release Study will not only enable Customs administrations to measure their commitments when it comes to clearance time but also to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of border procedures, includ...

“In God we trust, all others must bring data”. Widely attributed to statistician and management theorist W. Edwards Deming, this quote epitomizes the importance of data in decision-making. With technologies for extracting, collecting, storing and processing data having progressed rapidly over th...

Conducting Time Release Studies to drive and assess changes The WCO Time Release Study (TRS) is an internationally-accepted strategic tool for measuring the actual time taken for the release and/or clearance of goods – from the time of arrival until the physical release of the cargo – as well ...

Providing data on the usage of preference treatments established by Free Trade Agreements Trade negotiators need Customs data both when considering the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and when evaluating the effectiveness of FTA commitments and the benefits they have brought for business. In...

Dreams are for real For Customs officers across the globe, working for the WCO Secretariat is a prestigious opportunity not to let slip. I’m no different. So when the chance came knocking to ply my trade via the Career Development Programme (CDP), I was eager to grasp it with both hands. The CDP...

Embracing opportunities My first major task was to help organize the Global Information and Intelligence Strategy Working Group meeting. My role was not confined to making preparations for the meeting. I was to deliver a presentation on behalf of the WCO Secretariat on the topic of data analysis. ...

Going through a Customs inspection at an airport is not an unpleasant experience for most passengers. But for individuals with disabilities, who are travelling with small children or who do not speak the language, it can be a frustrating process. Nor is it easy for Customs officers, who have to ensu...

To improve the passenger experience, facilitate interaction and ease the work of Customs officers, the Finnish Customs Administration initiated a project with the Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. After some discussion, it was decided to produce a series of drawings...

An enthusiastic group of organizations responded in the affirmative, including the Finnish Hearing Association, the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired, the Guide Dog School, the Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the Lahti Institute of Design, the Office of ...

It is a known fact that sites across Serbia are being dug over and destroyed by treasure hunters and antique traders, and that valuable cultural artefacts are ending up in auctions or antique fairs in the West, where they sell for amounts which, although very high, far reflect their actual cultural ...

Between 2016 and 2020, many new electronic Customs systems will be developed within the European Union (EU). The new systems will have new data requirements based on a new WCO compatible data model, called the EU Customs Data Model (EU CDM). The EU CDM will enable further harmonization of electroni...

The Oceania Customs Organisation (OCO) has 23 members made up of independent countries and self-governing territories in the Pacific region. Established in 1986, its mandate is to support Customs administrations in their endeavour to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of their work, in order t...

OCO support To support its members, the OCO organizes training events and holds various forums to foster the exchange of information and promote networking. When it comes to training, the OCO has identified a need not only to strengthen its members’ competencies in technical matters, but also in...

Peru’s air and maritime ports of entry and exit are close to capacity, which creates a series of issues that affect the country’s overall competitiveness, including making imports and exports more expensive in today’s global market. Among other difficulties, until 2018, any entrepreneur operat...

WCO Time Release Study A few years ago, the National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (SUNAT) started devising a plan to help these companies make better decisions when hiring Customs brokers, in order to reduce their costs. At the time, it was aware of the WCO Guide to Measure th...

The devastating earthquakes that hit the southeast of Türkiye on 6 February 2023 destroyed 13 cities, directly affecting approximately 16 million people. Immediately, a fourth-level state of alert was declared, triggering a call for international help. Around 7,800 humanitarian aid shipments from 1...

The National Disaster Response Plan establishes a Disaster International Support and Cooperation Group, which is primarily responsible for coordinating the distribution of aid to disaster victims. Within this Group, Turkish Customs’ role is to ensure fast clearance of international aid and direct ...

Between 2021 and 2023, French Customs trialled the use of cameras in covert surveillance systems on the roads. Positioned discreetly on the ground and connected to a 4G system, they allow Customs officers to detect suspicious movements remotely. As mobile devices mounted onto a helicopter or drone,...

Covert surveillance: Daily working hypothesis for inland Customs The image of a Customs officer standing at a barrier has never been anything but an illusion. The annals of French Customs are brimming with references to surveillance mechanisms, including use of the famous folding bed for ambushing c...

This article presents the findings of a field study undertaken in 2021 at the border posts of Ethiopia with Kenya, Djibouti, and Somaliland. During the study, government officials and private sector representatives shared their views and perceptions on border management. Topics, ideas and practices...

My interest in border management had emerged during my studies in logistics and supply chain management, which I had started at Addis Ababa University in 2016. The field study was the final assignment of a master’s degree. I selected these three border posts due to their importance in regional cro...

Inter-agency cooperation The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted inter-agency cooperation at the Ethiopian borders with Somaliland, Djibouti, and Kenya, highlighting and exacerbating pre-existing issues. This was especially the case between health and Customs authorities. In response to the pan...

Nowadays, most Customs administrations have a school which teaches Customs staff. Some have a training centre devoted to the continuous practical training of officers throughout their careers. And it is one of these centres and its crucial role that is examined in this article, the purpose of which ...

People, goods and capital involved in preparing and perpetrating terrorist acts generally, cross borders and transit between different countries. The border is therefore the ideal place for thwarting the preparation of violent acts in advance, and for intercepting individuals linked to a terrorist o...

The New Year kicked off with positive news for wildlife, with the Chinese authorities announcing the capture and repatriation of a prolific ivory trafficker. This was the culmination of a major investigation led by the Anti-Smuggling Bureau of China Customs, which has disrupted two major wildlife tr...

The sea cucumber trail In-depth research and investigations by the EIA between 2014 and 2017 provided unique insights into the role of a major Chinese criminal syndicate involved in the trafficking of elephant ivory from East Africa to Shuidong, located in southern China’s Guangdong Province. At...

In line with the WCO theme for 2024, “Customs Engaging Traditional and New Partners with Purpose”, the WCO Secretariat is increasing its efforts to leverage collaboration with new and existing partners to advance Gender Equality and Diversity (GED) in Customs. Adopting a peer-to-peer approach t...

Jonathan Bouchard, Chief of Operations from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) who co-delivered two workshops in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria, also describes his support to WCO capacity-building activities as extremely rewarding. “Not only have I met amazing experts from the WCO, but I have ...

In light of the spate of terror attacks in various regions around the world, on 10 December 2015, the WCO Policy Commission issued the Punta Cana Resolution, which emphasizes the key role that Customs administrations play in tackling illicit cross-border movements of goods that could ultimately supp...

WCO Asia Pacific Security Project in action Thanks to financial support from the Government of Japan, a specific project was developed for Customs administrations in South East Asia and the Pacific Islands to strengthen their capacity in three of the five areas of the WCO Security Programme: items...

The land of Peru can be divided into three natural areas: the coastal region; the mountains; and the forests. All these areas have different species of fauna and flora, making it a country with a rich and varied biodiversity, and the home of species sought by collectors throughout the world. With i...

The Pan-European Network of Customs Practitioners (PEN-CP) is a five-year project funded by the European Union (EU) under Horizon 2020 (H2020), the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness. The P...

Main activities Instead of addressing a single Customs security challenge or problem, like it is done in most EU-funded H2020 research and development projects, PEN-CP participants carry out a broad range of small-scale activities aimed at monitoring and boosting innovation in six security related...

Less than two years remain until the 2026 FIFA World Cup comes to three countries: Canada, the United States and Mexico. In this article, Qatar Customs explains how it prepared for the 2022 edition of the event, which brought together hundreds of the world’s finest football players and more than a...

Managing passenger flows To ensure that it was able to control the entry of fans into the country swiftly, especially through Hamad International Airport and Doha International Airport, the General Authority of Customs had to estimate the expected volume of foreign visitors during the tournament a...

Developing competencies Several months before the start of the World Cup, a Support Team consisting of more than 100 highly skilled employees from all departments was created to provide comprehensive support during emergency situations or exceptional events. The team was available 24/7 to address...

In 1993, the Department of Federal Revenue of Brazil (RFB), which has under its umbrella both the Customs service and the internal revenue service, launched Brazil’s Integrated International Trade System (Siscomex) as part of its efforts to implement computer-based procedures and controls. The Sys...

Machine learning The artificial intelligence (AI) tool is called SISAM, a Portuguese acronym for “Customs Selection System through Machine Learning” in English. This computerized tool has been in use since August 2014 to evaluate the risk posed by importations. It runs 24/7 in one of the Brazi...

A dynamic and challenging operating environment Trade is of paramount importance to Singapore, as a globally-oriented and open economy. The importance of trade to the country is reflected in the fact that the value of Singapore’s external trade has consistently been three times that of its gross...

Whereas the former Customs and Excise Department was mainly focused on revenue matters, the new Singapore Customs is vested with responsibility for both revenue and trade facilitation matters. This working arrangement allows the ICA and Singapore Customs to share the responsibility of securing Singa...

The Customs Administration of Serbia (CAS) has set the bar high when it comes to the digitalization of processes and services. Its efforts, which are driven by Serbia’s accession negotiations with the European Union (EU), are presented below. Automated import and export systems In the past few...

One major concern was the integration of the IT systems with the New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) and the Electronic Customs Clearance Gateway (ECC GW), which is the interface used for communication between CAS and external subjects (traders, declarants, etc.). Currently, CAS is working on the...

NCTS P5 The European Union New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) is the name given to the application which facilitates electronic declarations processing among parties to the Convention on a common transit procedure, namely the 27 EU Member States, the four European Free Trade Association (EFTA)...

During a natural catastrophe or epidemic, it is essential for Customs administrations to facilitate or even speed up the delivery of relief consignments to victims, thereby helping to reduce the number of possible deaths. In fact, it would be unacceptable should this number increase as a result of �...

Late on 13 March 2015, tropical Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu, packing wind gusts of up to 320 kilometres (200 miles) an hour, and causing widespread damage in the archipelago nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. It was the most devastating tropical cyclone that the southern hemisphere has ever expe...

4 April 2018 was a special day in the life of Emilienne Pambo Bouassa. Emilienne, a Customs officer from Gabon, was attending the festivities in Dakar, held by Senegal Customs in the presence of the country’s Minister for the Budget, in commemoration of the anniversary of the country’s independe...

On joining the RILO for West Africa, one of Emilienne’s specific tasks was to reactivate the RILO for the Central Africa region, the idea being initially to manage the two offices from Dakar. However, the structure that she joined was disjointed and had only one operative, namely a Senegalese publ...

On 26 December 2004 almost two-thirds of the Sri Lankan coast was severely affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami, which left thousands of people displaced, injured or dead in its wake, highlighting the country’s vulnerability to a natural disaster. Besides low-frequency but high impact events, such...

The importance of the Time Release Study (TRS) has long been emphasized by the WCO as a useful tool for Customs administrations across the world to assess their performance in terms of the clearance process. Jawaharlal Nehru Custom House, catering to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), India’s bi...

 The JNCH has been undertaking Time Release Studies (TRS) since 2013, an exercise which is recommended in clause 6 of Article 7 of the TFA. In 2018, a new study was carried out in order to assess the impact of various measures and for drawing-up an evidence based roadmap to achieve the new target r...

Destruction, illegal excavations, theft, plundering and the illicit export of legally-protected cultural heritage can rob a country of its national treasures, and can often cause irreparable damage to a country’s history and cultural identity. The illicit trade in cultural objects is a worldwide p...

Customs administrations collate a significant volume of data on a daily basis. For instance, the Korea Customs Service (KCS) accumulates 45 GB of structured data and 30 GB of unstructured data in its database every day. However, most Customs administrations were until now not able to leverage such d...

The challenge With the exponential growth in e-commerce, the number of small parcels to be cleared by Customs has skyrocketed, stretching the limits of Customs enforcement capacities. Korea has a tax-exemption system and simplified Customs procedures in place for “low-value goods,” and there i...