On 26 February the World Customs Organization (WCO) announced the publication of the 94th edition of WCO News, the Organisation’s magazine aimed at the global Customs community, providing a selection of informative articles that bring the international Customs and trade world to life.
This edition’s “Dossier” focuses on how Customs can bolster “Recovery, Renewal and Resilience”, the WCO’s theme for 2021, and includes several articles on the digitalisation of procedures and the emergence of new digital ecosystems, an article on an impact assessment method using a stakeholder needs analysis, as well as another one on a methodology for using machine learning to identify transactions involving strategic goods.
In the “Panorama” section, China Customs offers some suggestions on how to combat waste trafficking more effectively, Brazil Customs presents its experience of conducting its first Time Release Study, and Oman Customs explains how it managed to accelerate the release of goods by rolling out a Single Window environment and signing service level agreements with regulatory agencies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the danger posed by products infringing quality and safety requirements intended to protect consumers and workers. In the “Focus” section of the magazine, the WCO asked market surveillance authorities and Customs administrations to share their experience of controlling the compliance of imported products. To introduce the topic and give an overview of the different offences observed, the WCO opens this section with an article on Operation STOP. This global enforcement operation targeted illicit trade in medical products, especially those generally used to diagnose or treat COVID-19.
A copy of the magazine is available on request.
Story by: Riaan de Lange
