On 10 November the World Customs Organization (WCO) announced in order to expand on its vision of “Customs fostering Sustainability for People, Prosperity and the Planet”, it has been incorporated as a full member of the Environmental Network for Optimizing Regulatory Compliance on Illegal Traffic (ENFORCE) under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention).
ENFORCE’s mission is to promote compliance of the parties to the Basel Convention by initiating efforts to prevent and combat illegal traffic in hazardous and other wastes through better implementation and enforcement of national law. ENFORCE aims to bring together existing resources and enhance and improve cooperation and coordination between relevant entities, with a specific mandate to deliver enforcement capacity-building activities and tools to prevent and combat illegal traffic in wastes.
The international Customs community plays a key role in combating illegal trade in hazardous wastes, and the WCO’s involvement in ENFORCE signals Customs’ commitment to intensify efforts in mitigating illegal hazardous wastes in the international supply chain.
Story by: Riaan de Lange