WCO Conference on Illicit Financial Flows and Trade Mis-invoicing
23 May 2018, Brussels, Belgium
The Conference is being organized by the WCO at its Headquarters, bringing together Members of the WCO and other relevant stakeholders to share the...
A whole day will be devoted to “disruptive technologies” at the meeting of the WCO’s Permanent Technical Committee (PTC) that is scheduled to take place from 16 to 20 April 2018. Delegates will discuss, in detail, the potential benefits, risks and impact of technologies such as blockchain, ...
On 1 May 2018, the WCO will launch the “WCO Academy,” an online platform where representatives from the private sector will be able to access e-learning courses, webinars, books and news. The WCO has already developed 23 Customs-focused e-learning courses covering more than 500 hours of e-tra...
In June 2019, experts in Customs, trade, transport, logistics and technology gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, to discuss matters relating to the various technologies used to manage flows of goods, people and means of conveyance across borders, with a focus on both technological products, services an...
Data is the new oil and free flow of data is needed
Customs has a lot of information at its disposal. The first information they collect is pre-arrival declaration information related to shippers, consignees, values and ...
The WCO organized the first edition of its Global Transit Conference from 10 to 11 July 2017 with the double objective of stimulating discussions on how to improve transit regimes and to promote the Organization’s newly published ‘Transit Guidelines.’
Many speakers and participants h...
The sound of African drums and dances welcomed participants as they arrived at the 4th WCO Global AEO Conference that begun in Kampala, Uganda on 14 March 2018. They were addressed by the President of Uganda, H.E. Mr Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who gave an inspiring message on the importan...
Illicit financial flows (IFFs) have been an issue of increasing concern over the past two decades, with many discussions, raising questions on what IFFs include, what we know about them, and how they can be measured.
Estimates of the scale of the phenomenon have played a key role in attrac...
Recognized as the largest WCO capacity building event, the WCO AEO Global Conference boasts the largest number of workshops held during an event, covering a variety of topics related to the security and facilitation of the global trade supply chain. The conference ...
The annual WCO PICARD Conference took place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 8 to 10 September 2015, giving rise to stimulating interdisciplinary debates around the following main themes: global value chains (GVCs); taxation and other revenue matters; and smuggling.
Following the issuance of a Cal...
From 26 to 29 October 2015, for the fifth time, the WCO organized its Technology & Innovation (TI) Forum, a platform for leading experts and decision-makers from various border agencies, technology companies, academia and international organizations to exchange ideas on border management, enf...
The WCO Secretariat organized the second edition of its Global Origin Conference, held from 10 to 12 March 2021, with the objective of stimulating the exchange of knowledge on the management and implementation of rules of origin, both from a Customs and a trade ope...
A study on the use of FTAs by European importers[2] was presented during the Conference. It showed that company ...
Lack of clarity and consistency is what really determines whether an FTA achieves its objectives or not
As Customs administrations play a key role in the administration of...
The core business of Customs administrations may well lie in making trade secure, but the time spent conducting inspections on goods consignments continues to decrease. The use of technology, in particular non-intrusive inspection (NII) equipment such as scanners and endoscopes, has contributed c...
If the conferences organized by the WCO Secretariat usually address technical matters related to Customs and trade, such as information technology, authorized economic operators (AEOs), the Harmonized System, or security, one event was an exception last year: the Communication Strategies Conferen...
Staff need to be informed and their voice heard
Internal communication can be defined as the way an organization interacts with its staff and the way they interact with it. Its purpose is to create a shared understanding ...
Every year, the WCO IT Conference and Exhibition brings together Customs, trade, transport and technology provider representatives to discuss matters relating to the various technologies used to manage flows of goods, people and means of conveyance across borders. Besides enabling participants to...
The next step should be to level the playing field with respect to performance. As one speaker asked: “Rather than mandate the IQI or penetration performances on an NII system, why not standardize those along with the testing regime in which they are met?” Similarly: “Instead of prescribing...
AI can take the fight against commercial fraud to the next level
AI and machine learning can enable Customs to identify cases of undervaluation, misclassification, misdescription and misdeclared country of origin. Experts...
From 31 October to 2 November 2017, for the sixth time, the WCO organized its Technology & Innovation Forum, a platform for leading technology experts and decision-makers from various border agencies, as well as representatives of the academic world and international organizations, to discuss...
Many experiences were shared during the International Conference “Respect for IP – Growing from the Tip of Africa,” which took place at the end of October 2018 in Sandton, South Africa. The conference was co-organized by South Africa’s Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC)...
Potential development tool
Opening the conference, Joan Fubbs, the South African Parliament’s Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, summarized what was at stake: “Lately, there is a widening co...
WCO events went digital in 2020, including the WCO annual conference dedicated to technology, recently rebranded as the WCO TECH-CON. The theme of the 2020 edition[1] was dictated by the circumstances, and the 50 speakers were asked to share their experience o...
The pandemic has also provided an opportunity to internalize the idea of digitization, which was always an option, but not necessarily a priority, for governments and their agencies. C...
The WCO has been prioritizing security-related issues for some years now, developing norms and practices to secure the supply chain and advocating that Customs administrations play an active role in addressing border security-related challenges. In fact, in December 2015 WCO Members adopted the P...
WCO Security Programme
A key part of the arsenal of tools developed by the WCO to assist countries in securing the supply chain is the WCO SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade (SAFE Framework)...