The Interface Public-Members (IPM) platform, the WCO’s unique tool in the fight against counterfeiting, became operational in 2011 and has already seen many improvements since its conception.
On 29 March the WCO announced that it continued to see evidence that illicit trade in all its forms was growing exponentially. This poses a grave risk to our economies and societies and requires a concerted multi-stakeholder effort.
The WCO believes that in this complex and hyper-connected world all stakeholders must work together harnessing all available technologies if the fight against illicit trade is to be successful.
The WCO created the IPM platform to support the efforts of Customs services and for the potential of this unique tool to be realised, it is now time to offer it to a broader range of stakeholders outside the Organisation’s scope. In order to make this possible the WCO has decided to transfer the ownership and further development of IPM to PSS, a wholly owned subsidiary of TechTrace and a longstanding partner and technology provider, who will expand the scope of the IPM platform, making it available to all relevant agencies and governments active in the fight against illicit trade.
The WCO Secretary General encouraged all WCO Members and stakeholders of the IPM platform to continue to give their active support to the programme. He stressed that better data that would result from the transition would enable the WCO and its Regional Intelligence Liaison Office (RILO) network to develop better and more thorough analytical products for the international Customs community.