On 10 July the WCO advised that it was currently hosting its first Global Conference on Transit at its Headquarters in Brussels. This event, which comes right after the annual WCO Council Sessions, sees the launch of a new tool for the facilitation of transit and establishment of efficient transit regimes, namely the Transit Guidelines. At the end of the first day of the conference, all the panellists agreed on the usefulness of the Transit Guidelines for further developing and implementing their respective transit systems. They urged the WCO to continue to update the Guidelines as a platform for future standardisation of transit systems.
Over 200 high-level delegates from more than 80 countries, including heads of Customs administrations, international organisations, development partners, the private sector and academia attended this Conference.
The WCO Secretary General, in his opening speech, highlighted the fact that transit enables not only goods but also countries to draw closer to each other in economic, political and social terms. Customs administrations are naturally playing a prominent role in the smooth movement of transit goods and, as a result, are in a position to support economic development, particularly in LLDCs. That is why the WCO began developing the Transit Guidelines with the aim of harmonising different transit frameworks, unlocking the potential of LLDCs, and taking practical steps towards efficient transit regimes as foreseen by international legal frameworks such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), the Vienna Programme of Action, and the Revised Kyoto Convention.
The Transit Guidelines contain 150 guiding principles and a variety of practical experiences of implementing efficient transit regimes, as shared by WCO Members, and have been issued in four languages: English, French, Spanish and Russian.
