This article outlines the case for Customs administrations to use ‘Collective Action’ to fight corruption and, by doing so, improve Customs policy and its implementation, increase duty and tax collection rates and support government anti-corruption efforts, whi...
In 2008, a huge corruption scandal involving officials from the public sector and representatives from the private sector shook Uruguay’s foreign trade community, as well as its international trading partners: 11 Customs officials working at Carrasco International Airport and 25 Customs brokers...
Companies operating in global supply chains face a number of systemic corruption issues, such as demands for ‘facilitation’ payments or extortion for bribes, when trading goods across borders. National anti-bribery legislation in many countries and extraterritorial regulations, such as the Un...
Brazil is on the cusp of a groundbreaking transformation, with the rollout of an upgraded version 2.0 of its Foreign Trade Single Window, the Portal Único Siscomex. A core innovation within the Portal is the introduction of a catalogue describing products using pr...
In Customs goods nomenclatures, some goods are subsumed within a broader group of goods in the same classification. As they are hidden as an unknown quantity within the broader class of goods with which they share a classification, enforcing regulations on the cross-border movements of these good...
Product Catalogue
Once attributes are identified for each CMN code, exporters and importers are asked to register the products they currently trade or plan to trade, and to provide an accurate description using the attri...
The year 2015 left an indelible imprint on Guatemala’s history. President Otto Pérez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti were arrested over their alleged involvement in La Línea or “the line,” the name given to a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme invol...
Brazil’s Customs Authority and private sector representatives worked together to develop a compliance programme dedicated to e-commerce companies. Launched in August 2023, the programme is a testimony to how Customs-Business partnership can shape regulatory frameworks and foster innovative solu...
The work undertaken at the WGEC led to the development of the WCO Cross-Border E-Commerce Framework of Standards, approved by the WCO Council in June 2018. The Framework is a testimony to effective public-private collaboration, shaping norms, systems, and processes. It also promotes such partners...
Partnership
Brazil’s legislation, crafted over two decades ago, proved inadequate for the volume of trade. In 2020, the Procomex Institute, the operational arm of the Pr...
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 aroun...
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) pl...
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 o...
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 wit...
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 ...
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 ele...
The Lithuanian Customs Practitioners Association (LCPA) is a very dynamic organization which publishes a journal called the Customs Compliance & Risk Management Journal for Practitione...
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 s...
E-commerce continues to grow, as well as the number of parcels moving across borders. The challenges to ensure the regulatory compliance of such transactions have been addressed many times in the pages of this magazine. In this article, we would like to provide an ...
A new programme
In addition to these proactive checks and to strengthen them, DHL Express is launching the Global Customs Compliance Programme, with the goal of further improving shipment integrity and commercial...
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 ...
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 ...