Articles

WCO Members continue to accede to the Organization’s key instruments; a clear demonstration of the crucial role they place in assisting Customs administrations to meet the challenges and opportunities … of today’s global trading environment.

June 2010 marked the fifth anniversary of the endorsement by the WCO Council of the SAFE Framework of Standards to secure and facilitate global trade.

A small scale trader waits in the shade of a tree at the Mwanza Border Post between Malawi and Mozambique. Somewhere inside, a clearing agent is completing complicated paperwork on his behalf … for a sum of money. The agent will deal with Customs officials, go over forms, calculate import duties and taxes and so on or sometimes even disappear with the trader’s money!

Abu Dhabi is the largest of seven Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a federation of states situated in the south east of the Arabian Peninsula. As the capital of the UAE, … the City of Abu Dhabi is a cosmopolitan metropolis and the centre of the country’s political and industrial activities as well as a major cultural and commercial focal point.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known by its acronym CITES or ‘the Washington Convention’, is an international agreement between governments … aimed at ensuring that the international trade in species of wild animals and plants does not put their survival at risk.

During the autumn, the World Trade Organization and Cambridge University Press will publish A Handbook on the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement.

There is so much written about risk management, itseemsthat there is nothing left to say. Conceptually, “risk” is used to denote perils, loss, dangerous occurrences, hazards, and even vulnerabilities. … Those of us who had to teach management at college and university levels know that management from the time of Henri Fayol’s 14 principles in 1916 to current management teaching includes functional principles such as planning, organizing, commanding, controlling, leading, budgeting; principles in human resources like personnel administration, human motivation and relations, training, development and performance appraisals, and operational management. In other words, risk management, involves every aspect of an organization’s status and operations. But what aboutsecurity in a global supply chain? In the supply chain there are risk elements like third parties, foreign shippers, carriers, weather, foreign governmentinvolvement, disruption in the process, timing, language, cargo quality and quantity, and other forces.

Risk management is key to the overall reconciliation of the requirements of enforcement, security and facilitation. One of the biggest challenges Customs administrations are facing today is to … determine how to best apply risk management to identify and mitigate risk at the operational level. As the only international intergovernmental organization that deals with Customs procedures governing trade between countries,the WCO has developed a variety of different tools which can assist and facilitate its Members’ work in managing risk.

The Directorate of National Tax and Customs (DIAN) in Colombia is responsible for providing a compliance and facilitation service vis-à-vis economic operators in order for tax, Customs and exchange-rate … system rules to be met. DIAN aims to collect all taxes, expedite foreign trade operations, and encourage fair competition.

Cultural heritage is the legacy of tangible artworks that express the value of a culture and the characteristics of a society. For every nation, cultural heritage represents a fundamentalsource … of life, civilization as well as a unique assetfor itsfuture. Through the preservation and promotion of their national cultural property and heritage, societies transfer their own identity onto future generations.

Despite the global financial crisis and its repercussions on the art market, illegal trade in culturalproperty continues to flourish worldwide.

Improving tariff classification work is recognised as a priority in the WCO Strategic Plan, which calls for the implementation of best practices in this area. These best practices are enshrined … in two very important WCO Council Recommendations on the introduction of programmes for binding pre-entry classification information (1996) and on the improvement of tariff classification work and related infrastructure (1998).

Although the trade in ivory from Asian and African elephants has been banned since 1975 and 1989 respectively in all 170 countries signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered … Species (CITES), illegal and unregulated trade continues to occur in many parts of the world, primarily Africa and Asia.

On 9 December 2009, the WCO launched the latest version of its Data Model; a global solution for optimizing electronic data exchange. This version of the Model represents a significant development … as it will act as an enabler for improved management of cross-border transactions.

The WCO has published the agreed amendments to the Harmonized System (HS) nomenclature that will enter into force on 1 January 2012.

Even though Customs interacts constantly with business, the shape of relations between these two international trade protagonists varies from country to country, depending on the economic situation, … national culture, political imperatives, and operational resources and requirements, etc. The Revised Kyoto Convention states in its general principles that “Customsshall institute and maintain formal consultative relationships with the trade to increase co-operation and facilitate participation in establishing the most effective methods of working commensurate with national provisions and international agreements.”