On 1 July 2008, the European Union (EU) will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its Customs Union. This is a very considerable achievement of which we can be proud. We have gone very far during … these 40 years in building a unified Customs entity. Now, what does the future hold? How will the role of Customs change? Can Customs continue to evolve to meet new challenges, as well as the expectations of our nearly 500 million citizens? I suggest that we should not be passive spectators to the events around us, but that we should actively respond to change.

The Ecuadorian Customs Corporation is an independent institution that was created 10 years ago with the mission to administer Customs services in a fast and transparent manner. Ecuador Customs … is oriented towards the efficient collection of taxes, and to facilitate and control Customs activities in the current foreign trade market on the basis of integrated and automated processes. It encourages a culture of competitiveness and uprightness that guarantees service excellence to both external and internal users, which in turn contributes actively to the development of Ecuador.

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), a specialised agency of the United Nations, is responsible for facilitating communication between peoples, based on the principles of free circulation and the … right of all citizens and businesses to communicate via postal services. The UPU, established in 1874, implements policies aimed at modernizing and developing the postal sector world-wide, for the benefit of its 191 Member countries.

As part of the “Inventing Our Future” Forum on “The WCO in the 21st Century”, the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), represented by Mr. Hassan Baage from the Counter-Terrorism … Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), was asked to speak on the topic “Security : A challenge for the WCO?”.

Money laundering has a considerable adverse impact on the social stability and economic development of a nation. It is not a stand-alone crime, but is intertwined with other crimes, which are … called “predicate offences”. These offences include transnational organized crimes such as the smuggling of drugs, arms, stolen vehicles and artworks, the trade in counterfeit goods, and so on. This criminal trade generates a significant amount of illegal proceeds that need to be laundered, hence the need to find more avenues in which to do so.

The dramatic rise in the number of preferential trade arrangements, together with complex and often confusing rules of origin are some of the increasing challenges facing both customs administrations … and the business community.