On 29 October the World Customs Organization (WCO) published the 93rd edition of its WCO News, the magazine aimed at the global Customs community, which provides a selection of informative articles that touch on the international Customs and trade landscape.
This issue looks more specifically at Customs valuation, a technical but fundamental subject. Since its inception, the WCO has always been closely associated with the different multilateral systems used to value imported goods. “As the Technical Committee on Customs Valuation established by the WTO Agreement on Customs Valuation has just celebrated its 50th Session, we thought it appropriate to retrace the history of the rules used to determine the value of imports, the challenges raised by their implementation and existing opportunities for Customs to enrich their knowledge and improve their practices in this area.”
The “Panorama” section covers various topics such as the development of electronic tariff platforms in Africa, the improvement of the food clearance process in India, the construction of an advanced digital platform for trade and logistics in the United Arab Emirates, enhanced collaboration between Australia and Korea through officer placement, and finally, the perspective of Customs experts on issues deemed important in their own country or area of work.
“Following the previous edition of the magazine, we have compiled articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the "Focus" section.” The WCO Secretariat presents, in particular, the new procedures and new tools adopted to ensure continuity of activities by the organisation’s working bodies. As for capacity building, it is discussed in an article describing the remote delivery of Mercator Programme Stocktaking and Forward Planning missions by the WCO team overseeing the HMRC-WCO-UNCTAD Programme.
The “Flash info” section includes a long article on the new approaches to measuring corruption and integrity which have been adopted by the WCO Secretariat team in charge of the Anti-Corruption and Integrity Promotion (A-CIP) Programme, and what lessons can be learned from their experience so far.
Finally, this issue's "Point of view" article highlights the benefits of using systematic non-intrusive screening equipment and automatic detection to screen baggage upon arrival at airports.
Story by: Riaan de Lange