As part of its Strategic Trade Controls Enforcement (STCE) Project, the WCO organized an unprecedented law enforcement operation to detect and prevent illicit trafficking of strategic goods in international supply chains. The operation, which went under the code name of ‘Cosmo’, brought toget...
Identifying shipments containing prohibited or smuggled goods is somewhat like searching for the proverbial “needle in a haystack” for Customs officers. Let’s keep this image in mind: modern container ships are like massive “haystacks,” each carrying up to 20,000 containers. It’s the ...
Training delivery and gender mainstreaming
At the outset, the two Organizations adopted a staged approach in the way they delivered the programme. Activities are organized over a period of at least three years in stages, referred to as th...
At the start of 2019, in partnership with the European Union, the WCO Secretariat launched the COLIBRI Project to help administrations responsible for enforcement in Latin America, the Caribbean and West Africa to implement effective controls in general aviation. General aviation covers all civil...
An international database dedicated to general aviation
The objective of the COLIBRI Geoportal is to bring together in one place data relevant to the effective surveillance of movements by general aviation. It therefore includes a databas...
As regards the Geoportal, users will be able to choose between several base maps:
In 2020, the WCO Secretariat ran the first ever Operation STOP initiative to assist Customs enforcement services in enhancing their capacity to control the medical products which are generally used to diagnose or treat COVID-19. An Results A total of 83 administrations reported 3,434 seizures or detentions relating to illicit targeted products, including 13 seizures or detections of vaccines, which...
Following the signature of two new grant agreements with the European Union and the US Department of State, new activities have been scheduled under Programme Global Shield (PGS) for the next three years (mid-2022 to mid-2025) for the benefit of all WCO Members.
Whereas, in the past, support used to be provided to specific countries and regions based on grant agreements, the activities to be rolled out up to mid-2025 are now open to all WCO Members. They include:
The threat of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack is a global problem. Although not a recent phenomenon, the use of IEDs in modern warfare and by terrorist groups has grown exponentially in the 21st century. Part of the reason that IEDs are so prevalent is that they are cheap a...
Programme Global Shield (PGS)
Launched in 2010, PGS is an initiative aimed at building Customs capacity to monitor the licit movement and counter the illicit trafficking and diversion of explosive precursor chemicals and ...
Results
Some 24 administrations of the Americas and Caribbean region participated in the Operation and 1,788 licit shipments were reported during the operational phases. Among all PGS monitored goods, urea was the most pr...
Much has been said about illicit trade and over the years many articles touching on this subject have been published in this magazine covering, amongst others, drugs, tobacco, ivory, counterfeiting, cash and dual-use goods. In this edition we put the spotlight on some lesser known illicit trade i...
In October 2014, the WCO launched a new project aimed at enhancing Customs’ capacity to counter wildlife trafficking by ensuring that all trade in wild plants and animals, and any products derived from them, is legal in terms of the implementing provisions of the Convention on International Tra...
It is often said that where there is a will there’s a way, but the reverse can also be true: improving Customs administrations’ capacity to understand and implement regulations might influence their willingness to make commitments. By developing and disseminati...
When it comes to enforcing STCs, Customs is generally, although not always, the main agency involved at the border. Depending on the situation of a country, determining whether traders are compliant is a challenging task, especially for dual-use goods. As Renaud Chatelus explained in an article p...
Measuring the programme’s performance
The following data can be taken into account when trying to assess the impact of the programme:
A Rights Holders’ Corner has been added to the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) CENcomm Group, the secure communication tool developed by the WCO Secretariat to enable law enforcement officers to exchange information on goods infringing IPR or posing a danger to people’s health and safety.<...
Operation COLIBRI Paramuno highlights the use by criminals of general aviation to move illicit goods as well as the need to strengthen risk analysis capabilities and conduct regular control operations for this mode of transport.
In 2019, with funding ...
The Geoportal consists of a mobile application supporting data collection, a geospatial map and a database that holds information on observations made by field officers and on controls carried out on aircraft. The objective is to obtain a comprehensive database on all GA aircraft operating within...
The ambitious goal envisaged by the creators of the WCO COPES Project was to initiate a dialogue reflecting on the working methods used to combat fraud, from the identification of an offence to the storage of seized assets, including reporting, collecting and preserving evidence.
In additi...
A new version of the WCO Strategic Trade Control Enforcement Implementation Guide wa...
The Guide was developed in response to Customs administrations’ requests for practical assistance with the development or review of their Strategic Trade Control Enforcement processes and procedures. It is divided into two main sections. The first section, intended for senior Customs managers a...
The WCO aims through Operation DEMETER to equip Customs officers with the knowledge, tools, and cross-border networks needed to address environmental crime related to waste, ODS and potent greenhouse gases with agility and precision.
The...
Extended scope
In 2019, substances controlled under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (the “Montreal...
The WCO digital toolbox contains an extensive variety of instruments and tools to help Customs incorporate information and communications technology (ICT) into their daily work, one of which is the National Customs Enforcement Network (nCEN) application.
It has been almost three years sinc...
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-governmental organization dedicated to combating environmental crime, has developed the first public-domain online platform collating data on seizures, arrests and prosecution records which contextualize the dynamics of the illegal wildlife trad...
This platform, or Tracker, consists of dashboards and maps that illustrate the trafficking hotspots and transportation routes, and charts the links between the criminal networks and key individuals involved.
Several closed user groups (CUGs) have been set up in CENcomm, the WCO’s secure, web-based communication system.
They aim at enabling information exchange on illicit trade and smuggling activities and/or the sharing of information of interest to field officers and analysts....
Articles suspected of infringing intellectual property rights were split among 16 categories. Of the total number of articles, 52% fell into a category called “other”, which mainly includes face masks, hand tools and ball bearings. The other categories of articles with the highest volumes ar...
The first time that any authority attempted to put an obstacle in the way of humans moving goods or themselves across territory by imposing restrictions, borders, and Customs controls, illicit trade was born, explained journalist and writer Moisés Naím while presenting his latest book. Since the creation of the World Customs Organization in 1952 and its Enforcement Committee in 1984, WCO Members have been discussing ways to identify, stop and prevent illicit trade. From a very early stage, supported by the Secretariat, they developed data and information catalogues, exchanged i...
The Swiss art market, being one of the largest in the world, inevitably attracts objects of dubious provenance. Some of these stolen or plundered objects not sold directly on the Swiss market are held in Switzerland pending their insertion in the legal distribution system, whether in Switzerland ...
In July 2021, while most of the world was focused on COVID-19, a dangerous foreign animal disease was discovered in the Western Hemisphere. African swine fever, a highly contagious and deadly viral disease that affects swine, was discovered in the Dominican Republic and then Haiti. But the diseas...
According to the National Pork Producers Council, a trade association representing U.S. pork producers and other industry stakeholders, the pork industry supports more than 573,300 U.S. jobs and generates more than $62 billion of gross national product to the U.S. economy. In 2023, U.S. pork expo...
Action plan in place
When African swine fever was first detected in the Dominican Republic in July 2021, CBP’s agriculture specialists at John F. Kennedy Airport immediately put an action plan in place to respond to the...
The rapid development of the Internet in the past decade has drastically and positively changed every aspect of our lives. People, in almost all cities across the world, are today virtually connected with each 24/7. But thanks to its speed, expediency and anonymity, internet-based technology has ...
The global Customs theme for 2020 reads “Customs Fostering Sustainability for People, Prosperity and the Planet,” and, although the three focus areas are inter-linked, each warrants separate consideration due to their wide-ranging scope.
It is thought-provoking to note that global GDP ...
Sustainable Development Goals
World leaders committed, for the first time, to the goal of sustainable development at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In 2000, 189 States signed a declaration to achieve eight Mi...
Environmental sustainability
Environmental sustainability lies at the heart of most of the SDGs, and cannot be detached from the SDGs and future prosperity. The UN acknowledges environmental sustainability as key to achie...
Working towards environmental sustainability
Various environmental and social treaties and goals have been adopted internationally, but more progress has been made in relation to social goals than environmental ones.
Conclusion It is imperative for Customs administrations to acknowledge and respond to environmental risks and crimes, and to ensure that such crimes receive the strategic and policy recognition and operational attention t...
Nigeria signed the CITES Convention on 4 May 1974, and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has been in charge of enforcing its provisions ever since. NCS did not serve this function well for many years, but this has now changed.
A toothles...
NCS also fully supported the June 2014 Declaration of the Customs Co-operation Council on the Illegal Wildlife Trade which clearly acknowledged the existence of this problem and urged Customs authorities to use the full range of detection and investigative techniques, including risk profiling, in...
When I was recruited into Customs, I was trained like every other Customs officer in various techniques to fight crime, but the focus was on collecting and accounting for revenue on trade goods. However, I was given the opportunity to develop other knowledge and skills.
The work done by th...
The global trade in illegal pesticides is growing, evidenced by the increase in the number of seizures and incidents around the world related to such products. The increase is not only due to better awareness by controlling authorities of the phenomenon, but also to the fact that nowadays the ill...
For some years now, Argentine Customs has been treating counterfeiting and piracy as a serious threat to its economy and to the health and security of people. In 2011, the WCO recognized these efforts by awarding Argentine Customs a special prize for demonstrating its outstanding commitment to co...
Moreover, Customs has the competency to act on its own initiative[1] (ex officio procedure). In such cases, the right holder is notified of the detention of the goods, providing him with the opportunity to submit an AFA. However, Customs can also de...
Risk analysis
The Trademark Fraud Division was established in 2006 as a specialized unit to work on enhancing Customs’ capacity to detect IPR infringing goods and to manage the Alert Entry System. Currently, th...
Identifying the trade in fisheries products that have been illegally caught is challenging. This article provides an overview of the solutions being developed by governments, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private secto...
How the Harmonized System supports a safer, greener world by specifying goods of environmental concern or interest.
“Here be dragons”
Dragons and other mythological beasts...
Goods posing environmental risks
In every new edition of the HS, there are changes designed to make it simpler for administrations to monitor and control the trade in goods posing an environmental risk. For example, goods...
Drug abuse is an escalating concern in Mauritius. According to a survey conducted in 2024 by the non-profit company Afrobarometer, Mauritians consider drug abuse and addiction as the second most pressing issue for government intervention, with on...
The fight against illicit drug trafficking is one of the top priorities of the Mauritius Government. To support these efforts, it engages the Customs Service, alongside the forces of the Police, the National Coast Guard (NCG) and the Anti-Drug Smuggling Unit (ADSU).
The National Drug Obser...
Tools, equipment and technology
Mauritius Customs draws on a panoply of detection and surveillance tools and equipment, systems and state-of-the-art technology in the fight against illicit drug trafficking.
This article introduces the measures taken in Uzbekistan to combat tobacco smuggling that led to a significant reduction in the volume of Customs seizures in 2024 together with an increase in the volume of importations.
Accord...
Enhancing the monitoring of transit operations
Uzbekistan is a landlocked country bordered by Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Located along the ancient Silk Road, it has been the centre of commer...
There is a long-standing concern that trade flows in hazardous and other wastes could lead to negative impacts on human health and the environment if such wastes end up in countries without capacities for their proper management. On the other hand, trade in was...
Latest developments
In May 2019, the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, the Convention’s decision-making body, adopted numerous decisions. They include the adoption of the Plastic Wastes Amendments, whic...
The environmentally sound management of wastes covered under the Convention also has its own specificities and implementation challenges. First of all, the definition and classification of waste, scrap and secondary materials can be different from country to country. The Convention specifies haza...
Available support
Fourteen regional centres for training and technology transfers related to the management of hazardous wastes and other wastes and the minimization of their generation have been established to support th...
The COLIBRI Project, which is aimed at monitoring and controlling general aviation (GA) and combating illicit trafficking perpetrated through GA in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as well as in West and Central Africa (WCA), has been implemented since 2019 by the WCO Secretariat, with the f...
This means that GA represents a genuine opportunity for organized crime, offering a number of advantages to traffickers. This is a discreet, fast mode of transport that can use smaller aerodromes, where law enforcement agencies are often absent.
In order to build surveillance and control c...
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...
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 priv...
The ozone layer, which lies in the atmosphere high above our heads, is vital for protecting human health and the environment from dangerous ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth’s surface. Without it, life on earth could not exist. Depletion of this thin layer of gas is caused by the emissio...
Montreal Protocol
This environmental success story is testament to the achievements of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, under which nations of the world have phased-out 99% of ODS. One may conclude, therefore, that a global environmental ca...
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 ...
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 trai...
Change comes in many forms but it is invariably brought about by two main factors. The first occurs when there is a desire for it, whether by a group or an individual. The second type is born of necessity, when circumstances dictate that there is no other option. Occasionally both impetuses arriv...
Gold standard
The foundation, as seen by Morrissey and Codd, would be built upon meeting the highest standards of EU and WCO training, while delivering to a precise, ambitious set of business needs. With discussions heightening around the development of their own purpose-...
But it wasn’t just the technical training that made the trip so successful. Surrounded by colleagues of other Customs agencies from around Europe, the participants traded knowledge and experiences, as everyone brought something to the table. The trip also served another significant purpose, as ...
Over the past decade the global security environment has evolved, allowing rogue nation-states, sanctioned terrorist organizations, and violent criminal syndicates to operate on a transnational scale, converging in pursuit of common objectives. Today, these illicit...
In June 2015, when the partially decomposed body of an unidentified little girl, known as Baby Doe, was found in a trash bag on a beach on Deer Island in Boston Harbour, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the United States (US) contacted US...
The landscape formed by IT Customs systems in Brazil has undergone significant transformation in recent years, redefining how the Customs Administration manages and mitigates risks. Through the innovative use of artificial intelligence, including machine learni...
Together, these solutions swiftly propelled the modernization of Brazil’s Customs control procedures, marking a pivotal step forward in enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. These tools have all evolved to become essential in shaping the way Brazil handles Customs operations.
ANIITA an...
Helping well-intentioned users
SISAM was designed to detect errors in classification codes, not to assist well-intentioned importers and exporters in classifying goods. For that purpose, a new system called CLASSIF
For the past decade or so, one of Cameroon Customs’ main priorities has been the enormous task of fighting illicit trade. Although it has been a regular participant in various crackdowns organized by the WCO in recent years, since late 2016 it has also been working on its own enforcement operat... Working method and initial outcomes Customs responded to these calls by establishing a team of around 100 Customs officers under the auspices of a central command unit. The planned approach involved stepping up targeted ...
Stepping up the fight against illicit trade: a deep dive into Operation Halcomi in Cameroon
Launched in October 2014, the INAMA project aims to strengthen the enforcement capacity of Customs administrations in Sub-Saharan Africa, while focusing on the illegal trade in wildlife, particularly on species listed in the appendices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Specie...
For years, Customs administrations have been able to transform the raw information they collect on drugs, weapons, and humans trafficking into data which could be analysed to provide meaningful insights in the fight against these illegal activities. However, when i...
In late December 2010, the news broke about a Seattle court case involving counterfeit honey. A 70-year old Bellevue, Washington man, Chung Po Liu, had been sentenced to a year and a day in prison and was ordered to pay 400,000 US dollars (USD) in restitution for importing falsely declared Chines...
Changing strategies
Then the Chinese exporters changed their strategy. This time the shipments were sent from China, but they weren’t declared as honey. The shipping documents labelled the cargo as sugar syrup. “They ...
The global demand for timber, and its products, is only partly being met from legal sources. According to a 2012 Legal framework One of the key global agreements is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) that came into force in 1975. CITES, which has 183 signature countries, aims ... Organizations such as the WCO, working with its partners like INTERPOL, are investing a great deal in fostering collaboration among Customs administrations and relevant enforcement bodies to curb the illicit trade in various commodities, including through enforcement operations. One of these,
Results and remaining challenges Data collected by the UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre...
Statistics have shown that criminals are increasingly active in seeking out and exploiting the vulnerabilities of air travel to illegally smuggle dangerous, prohibited and restricted items by air. The WCO Illicit Trade Report 2019 reveals that “in 2018, 126 countries submitted 45,497 drug traff...
In countries where scanning equipment is available, one solution would be for Customs authorities to increase the inspection ratio for inbound travellers and their belongings. However, frequent screening with traditional standalone X-ray scanners can sometimes be inconvenient, stressful and even ...
In 2022, the WCO and its Members identified “Technology and Innovation” as one of the three focus areas of the WCO Strategic Plan 2022-2025. For the past few years, China Customs has been implementing the concept of “Smart Customs, Smart Borders and Smart Connectivity”, which established ...
Constructing a unified database
China Customs has comprehensively collected multi-source data and formed a data lake with over 15,000 data tables and more than 260 billion data entries in a local centralized manner.
...The principle of the model construction is as follows:
In an article published in WCO News in June 2015, Indonesian Customs shared its experience of buil...
Analysis of the data enables Customs to identify anomalies such as travel itineraries involving sensitive or illogical routes, passengers travelling with a suspicious amount of luggage for the length of their stay, unusual forms of payment, suspect travel agencies, etc., or a combination of these...
Until recently, therefore, officers of the air passenger analysis unit needed to open two separate applications in order to be able to visualize the data, and carrying out the analysis was very time-consuming and energy-intensive. They reported that the excessive amount of data displayed on the s...
Customs administrations around the world have reported incidents where their officers are being approached by organized criminal groups seeking to persuade them to misuse their power to facilitate illicit activities. The more that measures are taken to secure access to premises and IT systems, th...
All newly recruited staff are required to undergo induction training during which they learn about corruption risks and vulnerabilities. The various methods used by criminals, from seduction to threats and possible violence, are explained, as well as how to report corruption attempts so that they...
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer has been in the news a great deal recently. This is something quite unusual for a ‘lesser known’ convention. But how has this landmark environmental treaty, which some see as the most successful international agreement ...
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 pro...
Scientists determined long ago that there is a direct causal link between smoking and ill-health for both smokers and passive smokers. Despite overwhelming evidence, some stakeholders continued to peddle doubt regarding the health implications until this false contention was no longer tenable.
Trade has always been one of the manifestations of freedom and power. The idea of a “free port” can be traced back to 167 BC, when the Roman Senate made a decision to turn the then Roman island Delos into a free port[1]. City-States in the early Middle Age...
The same characteristics that make free zones attractive to legitimate business also lure fraudsters and criminals. They can forge documents and use free zones to repackage or relabel goods, or manufacture and assemble new goods in these zones. The transit and transshipment of goods pose the high...
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. p...
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 ...
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...
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”.[...
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.
...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 (205,18...
For more than 10 years, counter-terrorism units have been witnessing the establishment of caliphates by jihadist groups in the Sahel. Although the activities of militant Islamist groups were initially focused on Mali, they have gradually shifted towards the west and south of Burkina Faso and spr...
Groups of traffickers organized into networks have taken advantage of the situation to step up their illicit activities (trafficking in arms, drugs and human beings etc.) in the border areas of the region and of Benin.
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...
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...
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 internation...
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...
Role of corruption
It is universally understood that corruption “oils” organized crime, and IWT is no exception.[6] Nigeria is reg...
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 ...
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 a...
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 org...
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 T...
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 Phytosanitar...
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...
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, ...
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 t...
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 ...
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 improve...
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 contai...
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 o...
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 Enforcemen...
Since 2020, Pakistan Customs has been working with the WCO Secretariat to enhance working methods used to combat fraud, from the identification of an offence to the storage of seized assets, including reporting, collecting and preserving evidence.
Cus...
In 2017, the COPES Programme was created to enable the WCO Secretariat to offer technical assistance to Customs administrations as a complement to other WCO enforcement programmes dealing with specific commodities (drugs, goods covered by multilateral environmental agreements, etc.) or specific i...
When it comes to Customs, Europe is at a turning point. In a globalized and fast-paced world, where trade is becoming increasingly liberalized, the role of Customs is changing. Governments around the world are increasingly emphasizing the removal of barriers and the creation of a seamless flow of...
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...
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 ...
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 th...
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 T...
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. M...
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 counterpar...
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 Expre...
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 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 t... 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,...
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 var...
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 ...
Every year, thousands of artefacts disappear from museums, churches, private collections, public institutions or archaeological sites. From antique weapons to paintings, from coins to watches, from religious objects to archaeological finds, tens of thousands of specimens forming part of the world...
The flow of consignments delivered by postal operators or express courier services, sometimes over borders, is increasing at a rapid rate. Most of the consignments are small and generally of “low value.” The fact that the value is low often means not only are t...
Today, it is widely recognized that the growing e-commerce sector is beneficial to economies, providing new growth engines, developing new trade modes, driving new consumption trends, and creating new jobs. It has especially opened up growth opportunities to micro, small and medium-sized enterpri...
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...
Collecting, storing, analysing and disseminating law-enforcement information efficiently is critical for establishing robust intelligence capabilities. To support Customs administrations in this area, three WCO applications have been developed:
Three West African countries announced the publication of a joint portal for Customs verification of minerals at this year’s Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Forum for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains...
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 ...
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:
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 continued slaughter of elephants by humans and the cross-border smuggling of their ivory are endangering the existence of this magnificent species. Without concerted action and innovative techniques to stop the massacre fuelled by the greed of individuals who trade in illegal ivory, t...
When the first discussions on the creation of the Customs Enforcement Network (CEN) were initiated during the Enforcement Committee in 1999, there was agreement that the CEN would have positive implications for the organization of Customs enforcement services around the world. The project was una...
Engaging WCO Members
As a basic principle, the CEN Charter calls on heads of Customs administrations to raise awareness among their staff as to the added value of the CEN at the national level, in order to convince them t...
“Ideas mean nothing without execution”
While the strategic initiative is critical to fulfilling our goals, every initiative has to have its own strategy. For the WCO Secretariat, this means, on the one hand, putting ...
Although Burkina Faso has long been regarded as a land lacking in natural resources, over the space of just a few years, the country has been transformed into a mining player specializing in the production of gold. Among the reasons for this growth in the country’s extractive industries are the...
Gold exports
The gold exported by the industrial mines is sold to Metalor Technologies International, a Switzerland-based limited company, which specializes in the refining of precious metals. Artisanal miners, individual...
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, ...
Enhancing protection
The efforts of the Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit (ATPU) of the IAA to overcome this phenomenon consist of several activities that include:
The taxation of tobacco is a core policy mechanism for reducing cigarette smoking. Evidence shows that the greater the tobacco tax increase, the lower the cigarette consumption. National revenue agencies, such as Customs, collect enormous amounts of cigarette taxes every year through impo...
Detecting the illicit trade of prohibited or regulated commodities is extremely challenging. One way to enhance identification capacities is to analyse data related to seizures and detentions and develop a set of rules: deductive rules based on watchlists; inductive rules, using indicators or ano...
Data analysis: the case of Georgia Customs
“Smuggling trends and patterns change very fast. Having quality data on seizures is key to identify emerging risks in terms of commodities and modus operandi”, explained a representative of Georgia Customs
Communication component: the case of North Macedonia Customs Deployments of the nCEN application in Customs administrations already possessing centralized systems for enfo...
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 cultur...
WCO Members have been drawing and sharing lessons from their experiences in combating illicit trade associated with Free Zones (FZs) for decades now. One lesson is that there is a need for effective or better monitoring and control by Customs over these zones. However, changing existing FZ regime...
WCO research paper
Many papers, such as those produced by the Financial Action Task Force (2010), the International Chamber of Commerce (2013), INTERPOL (2013), Viski et al. (2016), The Economist (2018), the Organisation ...
The COVID-19 pandemic presented many challenges to the international trade community. Many of these were new to the officers working for the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), the Government of India’s nodal body responsible for formulation a...
Review
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the DIGIT team decided it was time to look again at the system to ensure it was still fit for purpose and to identify ways to enhance it. They first focused on analysing t...
Impetus from the top
This comprehensive review of DIGIT was not only supported but also driven by the highest echelons of the Indian Customs Department, ultimately culminating in the development of a dashboard for the Fin...
The WCO Asia-Pacific Regional Data/Intelligence Professionals Programme is a new initiative led by the WCO Secretariat in close collaboration with the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia and the Pacific (RILO A/P), thanks to funding provided by Japan Cust...
Discovering how to leverage the WCO Customs Enforcement Network (CEN)
The programme began with an intensive online training phase, focusing on two WCO applications, namely, the Customs Enforcement Network (CEN) and the C...
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...
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 ...
All countries have regulations to ensure that products available on the market do not endanger consumers and workers. In this section of the magazine, we asked market surveillance authorities and Customs administrations to share their experience regarding controlling the compliance of imported pr...
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 colle...
In April 2020, the WCO Secretariat drew up a list of medical products which are generally used to diagnose or treat COVID-19, with their respective HS codes. The aim was to help governments to get an overall idea of trade in and stocks of these suddenly much sought-after products and to allow the...
Preparation stage
An indicative list of targeted products and their HS codes was drawn up. These were, in particular, test kits, reagents and diagnostic test instruments, protective clothing, thermometers, medical devices...
A total of 51 administrations carried out 1,683 seizures or detentions, with 12 administrations reporting the broad ma...
The challenge that border controls represent for Customs is growing daily in terms both of cargo volume and in the complexity of external trade transactions. That very complexity is attractive to perpetrators of organized crime who seek to conduct their criminal activities under a front of lawful...
What to inspect?
For some decades, Customs worldwide have used risk models to identify when goods should be subject to physical and/or documentary checks, or when they should be released immediately once all countries’ ...
Market surveillance system
In Italy, responsibilities for market surveillance are met by the Ministry of Economic Development (hereinafter MISE), as well as by other sector-specific agencies, such as the Ministry of Healt...
Where the release for free circulation is suspended, Italian Customs must immediately notify the competent market surveillance agency, which is given three working days to perform a preliminary investigation and to decide if the products can be released or must be detained for further checks on t...
A rising global population and higher standards of living have in turn led to an exponential increase in the consumption of goods, resulting in greater quantities of waste. The word “waste” covers a very wide spectrum of discarded material, encompassing household items, electrical and electro...
Waste trade
Between 1992 and 2012, the volume of waste traded grew from 45.6 million tonnes to 222.6 million tonnes, an increase of more than 500% in just two decades! The proportion of the world’s waste being exported ...
In the Netherlands, the Customs Administration supervises the flow of goods that enter or leave the European Union (EU) via the country’s external borders. “Supervision” is to be understood in a broad sense, and includes all acts aimed at establishing compliance with the wide range of legis...
Cooperation between the NVWA and Dutch Customs is facilitated by covenants signed at ministerial level. Although enforcing regulations at the border is not the NVWA’s core business, we would like, in this article, to open the discussion on how to improve this cooperation, especially in the area...
Improving joint risk assessment
Although controls are organized to be as seamless as possible for trade, the joint risk assessment process does have scope for improvement. Even though they share a mutual ambition to addre...
Threats to the security and general well-being of people all over the world are increasing. Given the internationalization of today’s supply chains, countering many of these threats requires governments to rigorously control trade operations at import, export and transit. One recurring issue is...
About Muon Tomography
In Nigeria, the authority responsible for ensuring that foods, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, chemicals, detergents and packaged water leaving or reaching Nigeria’s shores meet prescribed quality standards is the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). NAFDAC ...
The establishment of a good working relationship between the NCS and NAFDAC has set in motion effective and efficient control processes enabling both agencies to safeguard human health and protect the environment. This collaboration is especially welcomed in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 ...
Detecting some regulated or prohibited commodities through the use of traditional non-intrusive detection equipment remains a challenge today. Take cocaine, for example. It is very often concealed in shipments of bananas and other fruits with a very similar density to the drug. Since x-ray is a d...
Recent developments, especially with silicon chips and machine-learning technology becoming more affordable, have changed the game. A scan operation that would have taken several hours twenty years ago, now requires only a few minutes. Muon tomography today finds applications in dom...
According to the United Nations, in 2022, global cocaine production hit a record high, with 2,757 tons produced – a 20% increase from 2021. A key issue for enforcement authorities is to efficiently detect the presence of drugs, especially cocaine, using non-intrusive inspection tools.
Su...
When applied to cargo containers, chemical analysis of vapours has proven to be especially effective. All substances are subject to an evaporation process when a specific pressure is applied to them. The vapour analysis process relies on two separate steps. First, an air sample is taken from the ...
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 w...
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 suc...
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 ...